engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

, a boss is a protruding feature on a

workpiece A workpiece is a piece, often made of a single material, that is being processed into another desired shape (such as building blocks). The workpiece is usually a piece of relatively rigid material such as wood, metal, plastic, or stone. After a ...

. A common use for a boss is to locate one object within a pocket or hole of another object. For instance, some

motors An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

use a precisely machined boss on the front face to locate it on the mating part. Like a

process A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management * Business process, activities that produce a specific s ...

on a bone, bosses on

casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a casting, which is ejected or ...

s can provide attachment points or

bearing surface A bearing surface in mechanical engineering is the area of contact between two objects. It usually is used in reference to bolted joints and bearing (mechanical), bearings, but can be applied to a wide variety of engineering applications. The choic ...

s. The term 'boss' when used in engineering can also relate to a finishing edge around (usually) a circular opening that allows the opening to locate onto, or within another opening thus locating or joining two items together with a view to the location or joining being temporary or semi-permanent. A common everyday example of a boss is the housing of the rotation spindle in a washing machine drum, or on a cylinder lawn mower at the end of the cutting blade cylinder which may house a bearing set to allow the cylinder to rotate through one plane, but held firm in another plane. A boss can also be a brass eyelet on a sail. It is a generic term to describe an item designed to facilitate the use with, within, on or around another item whereby one cannot operate properly without the other. The word 'boss' is also often used to describe the end of a shaft on a boat to which a propeller might attach. A boss may also refer to a mounting feature that will receive a screw or thread-forming screw. In

computer-aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

applications, a boss is a feature used to describe a type of

extrusion Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross section (geometry), cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a Die (manufacturing), die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing pro ...

. The word boss comes from the

Middle French Middle French () is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from the other co ...

word ', which means protuberance.

Docking sleeve

A docking sleeve (or mounting boss) is a tube or enclosure used to couple two mechanical components together, or for chilling, or to retain two components together; this permits two equally sized appendages to be connected via insertion and fixing within the construction. Docking sleeves may be physically

solid Solid is a state of matter where molecules are closely packed and can not slide past each other. Solids resist compression, expansion, or external forces that would alter its shape, with the degree to which they are resisted dependent upon the ...

or flexible, their implementation varying widely according to the required application of the device. The most common application is the

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

appendage that receives a

screw A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the screw head, head. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety ...

in order to attach two parts.

References

Metalworking terminology {{Mech-engineering-stub

Docking sleeve

See also

References