“Stamping” refers to a manufacturing process in which material, often sheet metal, is cut or formed by applying pressure using a stamping press and a stamping tool (punch and die). It is a versatile process that can be used both for piercing and for forming flat materials.

“Turning”, together with drilling, milling and grinding, is one of the most important machining processes in cutting technology. As with all of these processes, chips are removed from a workpiece to produce the desired shape. In turning, the workpiece – the turned part – rotates around its own axis, while the tool – the turning tool – follows the contour to be produced on the workpiece.

“Milling” is a machining process used to manufacture workpieces with a geometrically defined shape. As with all cutting processes, material is removed from a raw part in the form of chips. Milling belongs to the group of cutting processes with a geometrically defined cutting edge, because the geometry of the cutting edges on the milling tools is known. During milling, material is removed by a milling tool rotating at high speed around its own axis, while either the tool follows the contour to be produced or the workpiece is moved accordingly. In milling, the feed motion occurs perpendicular or at an angle to the tool’s axis of rotation.

“Wire EDM” (also wire cutting; wire erosion, electrical discharge wire cutting) is a high-precision shaping process (cutting process) for electrically conductive materials, based on the principle of electrical discharge machining. A sequence of electrical voltage pulses generates sparks that remove material from the workpiece (anode) onto a continuously moving thin wire (cathode) and into the separating medium, the dielectric. The wire is then discarded. The accuracy of the process is based on the fact that the spark always jumps at the point where the distance between workpiece and wire is smallest.

“Radial riveting” (also referred to as orbital or wobble riveting) is a cold forming process in which the forming force acts only on a partial area of the workpiece. A wobbling movement of the upper die on a rotationally symmetrical workpiece enables large deformation with relatively low forming forces.

“Mass finishing” is an abrasive process for surface treatment, primarily of metallic workpieces. The parts to be processed are placed in a container as bulk material together with abrasive media (so‑called chips) and usually an additive in aqueous solution (compound). An oscillating or rotating movement of the working container creates relative motion between workpiece and media, causing material removal on the workpiece, particularly at its edges. The surface finish of the workpieces, the roughness, the amount of material removed and the deburring performance can be adjusted almost arbitrarily by the machines and tools used (media and compound).

“Heat treatment” is a process for treating workpieces in which they are heated and cooled in a controlled manner in order to change the material properties. Heat treatment is used mainly for metals.
A distinction is made between:
→ Annealing
- Tempering – Common for glass and plastics
- Stress relieving – Reduces internal stresses in the metal
- Bake-out – Removes contamination and undesired absorbed substances from surfaces

→ Hardening
- Case hardening – Microstructural transformation at the surface
- Precipitation hardening – Thermal decomposition/precipitation
- Dispersion hardening
- Quenching and tempering – Combination of hardening and tempering
- Solution annealing – Uniform distribution of foreign atoms in the metal lattice
- Bainitizing – Forcing a bainitic microstructure in steel
- Pearliting – Forcing a pearlitic microstructure in steel
- Carburizing – Increasing the carbon content of steels
- Aluminizing – Introducing aluminium
- Boriding – Introducing boron
- Carbonitriding
- Nitriding
- Nitrocarburizing
- Oxidizing
- Siliciding
- Vanadizing

“Surface technology” is the collective term for all technologies used to modify the properties of surfaces.
The basic idea of surface technology is the principle of functional separation between the volume of a component or tool and its surface. The volume fulfils a primary function (usually a specific shape, as in the case of gears) and has additional properties such as weight, strength, machinability and often low cost. The surface can then be optimized to a specific requirement profile using surface technology processes and thus fulfil additional functions.

These can include:
- Mechanical protection (wear, friction)
- Barrier function (corrosion resistance, permeation, diffusion barrier, thermal insulation)
- Interfacial interaction (biocompatibility, wettability, paintability)
- Electrical function (conductivity, electrical insulation)
- Optical function (reflection, absorption, decoration)
- Functional integration (printing processes, functional printing)