Blank
Blank turns up in 2 fields: vacuum, mechanical. Here is what it means to the people in each one.
Blank in vacuum
Solid flange with no hole, used to seal an unused port or to test a pump on its own.
A flange plate with no opening, made in every flange family (KF, ISO and CF), that closes a port with nothing mounted on it. Blanks cap spare ports, isolate sections during leak hunting and let a pump's ultimate pressure be measured with its inlet sealed. Putting a blank on a suspect pump and checking what it pulls is the quickest way to separate a pump problem from a chamber problem.
"Throw a KF40 blank on the scroll inlet and see what it pulls on its own, then we'll know if it's the pump."
Blank in mechanical
A piece of raw material pre-cut to a rough size and shape before final machining or forming.
An unfinished piece of stock material that has been roughly cut, cast, or forged to approximate dimensions, ready for secondary manufacturing processes. It contains just enough volume to yield the final part after operations like turning, milling, stamping, or coining remove the excess. Starting with an optimized blank reduces machining time and minimizes material waste.
"Load the next batch of aluminum blanks into the CNC lathe for the facing operation."