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23-Ind-B2 Manufacturing Processes · December 2018

Question 1 of 7: Classifying Manufacturing Processes — Net-Shaping, Additive, and Cutting Technologies

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National Examinations, December 2018 — 17-Ind-B2 Manufacturing Processes. 3-hour closed-book exam; candidates may use a Casio or Sharp approved calculator. Any five questions constitute a complete paper (only the first five as they appear are marked officially); all seven are answered below as a full study resource, since all questions carry equal (20-mark) value.

Reference texts. Groover, Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing: Materials, Processes, and Systems, 6th ed. (primary text for this subject — material selection, casting, polymer processing, machining, and composites).

Question 1: Classifying Manufacturing Processes — Net-Shaping, Additive, and Cutting Technologies (20 marks: 2 each)

Question text not reproduced: the examination questions are © Engineers and Geoscientists BC. Open the official past paper (linked at the top of this page) to read the question, then follow the worked solution below.

Given. Ten common manufacturing processes, each to be labelled with the ONE technology family it belongs to.

Find. The correct N / A / C label for each of the ten processes, with the reasoning that fixes the label.

Approach. Classify by what happens to material during the process: a net-shaping (N) process shapes a fixed mass of material (by solidifying a melt or by plastically deforming a solid) without adding or removing material; an additive (A) process builds the part up layer by layer from raw feedstock; a cutting (C) process starts from an oversized blank and removes material to reach the final geometry.

Question 1 — process classification
ProcessLabelWhy
a. Sand castingNMolten metal solidifies directly in the mold cavity to (near) final shape — no material added in layers, none removed.
b. Plastic extrusionNA continuous fixed cross-section is formed by forcing softened polymer through a die — a shaping, not a removal or layer-building, operation.
c. StampingNSheet metal is plastically deformed (cut/formed) between matched dies into the final shape; the bulk of the sheet's material stays in the part.
d. RollingNPlastic deformation between rotating rolls reduces thickness and shapes the cross-section — a bulk-deformation net-shaping process.
e. LatheCTurning removes material as chips from a rotating oversized blank to reach the final diameter/profile — classic material-removal (cutting).
f. WeldingNTwo near-final-shape parts are joined (fused, with or without filler) into one net-shape assembly — material is not removed, and it is not built up from nothing the way additive manufacturing is.
g. MillingCA rotating multi-tooth cutter removes material from a blank to generate the final surfaces — material-removal (cutting).
h. 3D printingAThe part is built up layer by layer directly from feedstock (filament, powder, or resin) with no starting blank — the defining case of additive technology.
i. BendingNSheet or plate is plastically deformed about a bend line into the final shape; no material is added or removed.
j. Injection moldingNMolten polymer is forced into a closed cavity and solidifies to the cavity's exact shape — a solidification-based net-shaping process, directly analogous to casting.
Check. Welding (f) is classified here as net-shaping because it neither removes bulk material nor builds a part up from raw feedstock layer by layer — it joins two already near-net-shape members into one. Some course treatments instead give joining processes their own fourth category; if this paper's own marking key uses a joining/other category, only item (f) would move, and every other label above is unambiguous.
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