Terms starting with W

Water-to-cementitious-materials ratio: the weight of mix water divided by the weight of cement plus SCMs.

European and textile-trade term for a loose, bulky batt used for padding, insulation or filling.

A thin valve body clamped between two pipe flanges by long bolts passing outside it.

Picture of a wafer showing each die's test result or measurement by location, used to spot spatial failure patterns.

Brand name used for push-in and lever-style splice connectors that clamp wires without twisting. Shop talk

Radiographer slang for two parallel lines of slag trapped along the edges of a root pass. Shop talk

The drifting apart of interacting beams in a crystal, either sideways from birefringence or in time from velocity mismatch.

To align a beam onto a path using two steering mirrors adjusted in turn against two targets or irises. Shop talk

TIG pipe technique of rocking the ceramic cup along the bevel to move the torch in a steady weave. Shop talk

Lighting a wall evenly from top to bottom with asymmetric luminaires set back from it, to make the surface glow uniformly.

LED dimming that also lowers color temperature as light level drops, imitating the glow of a dimmed incandescent lamp. Shop talk

Broad, even light covering a whole stage area or surface, built from overlapping soft-edged fixtures. Shop talk

Line slang for the spray pretreatment washer, or for the pass a part makes through it. Shop talk

The parts washer that strips oil and chips before heat treat and quench oil after it. Shop talk

Rinsing concrete residue from a truck's chutes and hopper, and the contained pit where that wash water goes.

Quick cleanliness check: a clean surface holds an unbroken sheet of water, an oily one makes it bead and split.

A vertical chamber piped to a steam boiler's steam and water spaces that carries the gauge glass and level controls.

A pressure surge, heard as a bang, when moving liquid is stopped or reversed suddenly.

A clear penetrating treatment that makes masonry and concrete shed rain while still letting vapor out.

An ion exchange unit that removes calcium and magnesium hardness from makeup water by swapping them for sodium.

Percentage of grease washed out of a running test bearing by a water jet, a measure of water resistance.

A strip cast into concrete joints to block water from traveling along the joint plane.

A boiler in which water and steam circulate inside tubes while the fire and hot gases pass around the outside.

Soldering through-hole parts by passing the board over a standing wave of molten solder.

A birefringent plate that shifts the phase between two polarization components to rotate or convert polarization.

Installer word for the wrinkles that form in a geomembrane as it expands in the sun. Shop talk

Tungsten carbide in a cobalt binder, the most common wear-resistant thermal spray coating.

Wavelength Division Multiplexing: sending several signals on different wavelengths over the same fiber.

Unable to survey because wind, sea or swell would ruin data quality or make boat work unsafe. Shop talk

Hooded fitting on top of a service mast where overhead service wires enter the conduit, keeping rain out. Shop talk

Thin layer of fibers or filaments made in the first stage of nonwoven production, before or after bonding.

Installer shorthand for the hot wedge welder, or for the heated wedge inside it. Shop talk

The tapered closure member of a gate valve that is driven down between two inclined seats to seal.

Brick whose thickness tapers along its length, used for arches and rings 9 inches or more thick.

To leak very slowly, leaving a damp oil film around a seal or joint rather than actual drips. Shop talk

An opening at the base of a wall or window system that lets collected water drain out.

Leaking a drop or wisp at a time from packing, a gasket, a threaded joint or a casting. Shop talk

Flexible life distribution with a shape and a scale parameter, the standard model for fitting time-to-failure data.

To charge a system with a measured weight of refrigerant on a scale, set by nameplate charge and line set length. Shop talk

The equation that estimates effective degrees of freedom for a combined uncertainty, used to pick the coverage factor.

The orientation of a joint during welding, coded 1 to 4 for flat, horizontal, vertical and overhead.

The drafting shorthand on drawings that tells the welder the weld type, size, location and process.

Standard set of run rules that flag nonrandom patterns on a control chart, not just single points past the limits.

Shop word for a furnace atmosphere with too much water vapor, meaning a high dew point and low carbon. Shop talk

Said of a chamber whose walls still hold adsorbed water, so it pumps down slowly and stalls high. Shop talk

The temperature a wet-wicked thermometer reads in moving air, lowered by evaporation in proportion to how dry the air is.

The underwater parts of a survey system, such as the sonar head or towfish, as opposed to the topside electronics. Shop talk

Front section of a paper machine, where stock is formed into a sheet and most of the water is drained and pressed out. Shop talk

Sealing glass into its frame with gun-applied sealant instead of preformed rubber gaskets.

How fully a tape's adhesive has flowed into contact with a surface, often visible through clear parts.

Line and lab talk for how readily a fabric lets liquid soak in and spread instead of beading on top. Shop talk

A steam system return line run below the boiler water line, so it always stays full of water.

To push anchor bolts, dowels or embeds into concrete after placing it, instead of fixing them in place beforehand. Shop talk

Describes a Scotch marine boiler whose rear gas turnaround chamber is surrounded by water instead of lined with refractory.

Describes webs formed from fibers dispersed in water and drained on a screen, on equipment adapted from papermaking.

How well a liquid adhesive spreads over and makes intimate contact with a surface.

Molten filler spreading across a clean surface and bonding to it, needed for a sound braze or solder.

A steady, pitch-changing tonal noise from gears, rising with speed and caused by tooth meshing errors. Shop talk

Short flexible conduit or cable assembly with wires already in it, linking a fixture or machine to a junction box. Shop talk

The short length of flexible conduit and wire running from the disconnect to an outdoor unit or air handler. Shop talk

The short, flexible lead between the main welding cable and the stinger, or a whipping rod motion. Shop talk

Hair-like crystal of tin that grows spontaneously from a tin-plated surface and can short nearby conductors.

The thin, hard compound layer of iron nitrides that forms on the surface during nitriding.

The highest blast-cleaning grade for steel: every trace of rust, scale and old coating removed.

Top abrasive blast cleaning grade: bare, uniform steel with no visible residue, rust or staining.

How white a surface looks to the eye, judged across the whole visible spectrum rather than one blue band.

Braided copper desoldering ribbon that soaks up molten solder, and the verb for using it. Shop talk

Field name for a prefabricated vertical drain: a plastic core in a filter jacket pushed into soft clay to speed settlement. Shop talk

Describing very thin adhesives that run into already assembled joints by capillary action.

Capillary movement of liquid along or through a fabric, measured as how far liquid climbs a strip in a set time.

Solder or plating chemistry drawn by capillary action where it is not wanted, up a lead, into a via or along glass.

Tensile test across a 200 mm wide specimen that gives strength per unit width for reinforcement design.

The proportion between a sealant joint's width and the sealant's depth, usually targeted at about 2 to 1.

Shop name for an edge finder or wobble-tip locator used to find part edges and lines on a mill. Shop talk

Solenoid voltage tester whose plunger jumps and buzzes to show voltage, prized for being rugged and hard to fool. Shop talk

An uncontrolled crack that wanders across a slab panel instead of forming under a control joint. Shop talk

Very uneven, blotchy formation with obvious flocs and thin areas when the sheet is held to the light. Shop talk

The one phase of a four-wire delta service that reads about 208 volts to neutral instead of 120. Shop talk

Wind blowing opposite to a tidal current, which builds short, steep and sometimes breaking seas. Shop talk

A wavelength region where fiber loss is low enough to run links, such as 850, 1310 or 1550 nm.

A continuous row of hot mix dumped on the road ahead of the paver, usually by belly-dump trailers.

The folding side walls of a paver hopper, and the habit of folding them to dump leftover mix onto the conveyors. Shop talk

To smear the soft babbitt lining of a plain bearing when the oil film fails, ruining the bearing. Shop talk

Endless woven plastic fabric on which the paper web is formed and drained.

Erosion of thin grooves across a valve seat by a high-velocity jet leaking through a tiny gap.

Twist-on connector with a tapered spring inside, used to splice two or more wires together in a box. Shop talk

Face of the sheet that lay against the forming wire while the sheet was formed.

Surface raceway that mounts on finished walls, named after the brand that made it standard. Shop talk

A small deliberate mark that shows how parts were aligned or where an original surface was. Shop talk

Warm mix asphalt: mix produced and placed about 30 to 100 F cooler than hot mix using additives or foaming.

A rocking or rippling artefact in multibeam data that follows the vessel's motion, caused by attitude or timing errors. Shop talk

Water, oil, gas: a cold working pressure rating stamped on small threaded valves, such as 600 WOG.

Hardening of a metal surface by plastic deformation, which makes the next cut much harder on the tool.

The stored distance from machine zero to the part zero, so a CNC program runs from the right place.

Innermost refractory layer in contact with the process, designed to wear and be replaced on a schedule.

A standard used routinely to calibrate instruments, itself checked against the lab's reference standard.

A screw-shaped gear with one or more threads that drives a worm wheel at right angles for a large reduction.

The gear driven by a worm, with throated teeth that wrap around the worm, usually made of bronze.

Shop name for elongated gas pores that tunnel through a weld like worm tracks. Shop talk

Welding procedure specification: the written instructions that tell welders exactly how to make a weld.

Fibers or web winding around a roll instead of passing through, which can stop a line or damage the roll. Shop talk

Charged powder curling around edges onto the back of a part that the gun never pointed at.

Wall or slope face formed by folding each geotextile or geogrid layer up the face and back into the fill above.

Water-resistive barrier, the layer behind cladding that sheds water that gets past the outer skin.

The remains of a sunken vessel, charted as a hazard or a feature depending on its depth and size.

Textured powder that cures into a fine wrinkled pattern, hiding substrate flaws and fingerprints.

Welded wire reinforcement, a grid of steel wires welded at every crossing and sold in sheets or rolls.