| AFBMA - Anti-Friction Bearing Manufacturers Association; An organization of bearing manufacturers with established standards for balls and bearings. |
| ANSI - American National Standards Institute; A private, non-profit organization that administer and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. |
| Annealed - A metalgraphic process in which a ball is softened. An annealed ball can be ground, drilled, filed and welded. Heated to remove or prevent internal stress; free from internal stress by heating and gradually cooling; toughened or tempered. |
| Brinell Scale - A system of numerical notation called Brinell that measures hardness of the specific ball material as compared to the Rockwell Scale. |
| Burnish - To polish by friction; to make smooth and bright, especially by rubbing or friction; to brighten or make lustrous. |
| Burnishing - A process in which non-precision balls are used as a media to smooth or brighten parts in tumbling barrels. Burnishing media is mostly made of carbon steel. |
| Case Depth -A distance from the surface of the ball to the unhardened core. It is measured radially from the surface to a point where carbon content or hardness becomes the same as the core. |
| Chemical Certification - A form that certifies the chemical analysis of the material. |
| Corrosion Properties - An element that is within the chemical analysis of a specific material that can resist against corrosion (example: stainless steel alloys). |
| Crushing Strength - A resistance of a ball to crushing loads. It is measured in pounds as determined by the three-ball method. |
| Density - Mass per unit volume is measured by pounds per cubic inch. |
| Eddy Current Tester - A machine to safeguard the quality in final inspection and to check for surface cracks. |
| EDM - Electric Discharge Machining is a process that utilizes an electrode to create a hole or threads in a hardened ball. |
| Forge - To form by heating and hammering; to beat into shape; to make by concentrated effort. |
| Grade - A guaranteed sphericity expressed in millionths of an inch. For example, a grade 25 ball is spherically accurate within 25 millionths of an inch. |
| HFC -Headed, Flashed and Cleaned is when the ball is not put through any lapping process to make a precision tolerance. HFC balls are not hardened allowing them to be machined. |
| Hollow - A ball that has a space or empty cavity in the middle and is mostly used for decorative purposes or in floating applications. |
| ISO - International Standardization Organization - A group that sets policies and procedures for industry standards in the manufacturing of products. |
| MS Numbers - A Military Standard number is assigned by the Department of Defense to represent a certain size, material and tolerance of a ball. |
| OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer. |
| Oxidize - A process in which a ball can change color or develop a surface condition due to the influence of outside contaminants; to combine chemically with oxygen; to cover with a coating of oxide of rust. |
| Physical Certification - A form that certifies the physical properties of the material. |
| Polished - A process in which a ball is put into a lapping machine and tumbled to improve the finish. |
| Precision - The degree of refinement with which an operation is performed or measurement stated. |
| Quality control - A set of procedures determined by an organization that the quality of the ball is met with certain standards. |
| Rockwell Hardness - A term that signifies the hardness of the ball, which is measured on various scales on a device, called a Rockwell tester. |
| Soft Polished - A ball that has not been heat-treated, for example a material that is already soft such as carbon. |
| Sphericity - Roundness which measures the difference between the largest diameter and the smallest diameter on a single ball. |
| Surface Waviness - A geometric irregularity of the ball surface. The wavelengths are longer than roughness. |
| TalyRand - An instrument that measures the roundness of the ball. |
| TalySurf - An instrument that checks the surface of the ball. |
| Tempering - A process that runs a ball for a specific length of time at a specific temperature to accomplish a specific Rockwell hardness; a substance added to modify other properties; the degree of harness and strength imparted to a metal, as by heat treatment. |
| Tensile Strength - Amount of pressure or psi the raw wire can withstand; the resistance of a material to longitudinal stress measured by the minimum amount of longitudinal stress required to rupture the material. |
| Visual Inspection - Observation of the ball surface by the naked eye. It is also called macroscopic inspection. |
