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 common use for a boss is to locate one object within a pocket or hole of another object. For instance, some motors use a precisely machined boss on the front face to locate it on the mating part. Like a process 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 surfaces. 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 applications, a boss is a feature used to describe a type of extrusion. 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 in order to attach two parts.

References

Metalworking terminology {{Mech-engineering-stub

Docking sleeve

See also

References