DICTIONARY OF AUTOMOTIVE TERMS - "Bi"
- Bias:
-
- The acute angle at which the cords in the tire fabric intersect the
circumferential centerline of the finished tire.
- The application of a potential difference across, or electric currents
through, an electronic device to set an operating condition upon which signals
are superimposed.
Also See:
ac bias
brake bias
true bias
- Bias belted tire:
A type of tire construction in which there are bias plies
as well as a belt of steel or synthetic (rayon, nylon, or fiberglass) cords between
the carcass and the tread. The belt
overlaps the bias plies and wraps around the
circumference. The cords and belt cross each other at
bias angles.
- Bias current:
- Non-signal current supplied to electrode of semiconductor device, magnetic
amplifier, tape recorder, etc. to control operation at optimal working point.
- Biased:
- See:
spring-biased
- Biased
protective system:
- A modification of a balanced protective system, in which the amount of out-of-balance
necessary to produce relay operation is increased as the current in the circuit being protected
is increased.
- Biased result:
- In observations, sampling, etc., introduction of a systematic error through some
malfunction of instrument or weakness in method used, so that error accumulates in a series
of measurements.
- Biasing:
- Polarization of a recording head in magnetic tape recording, to improve linearity of
amplitude response, using dc or using ac much higher than the maximum audio-frequency to
be reproduced.
- Biasing
transformer:
- A special form of transformer used in one form of biased protective system
- Bias ply tire:
- A tire having two or more carcass plies arranged in a criss-cross manner and diagonally
to the beads and travels approximately 1/3 the distance around the circumference before
attaching to the other bead. Each cord in the next ply is arranged in the same manner, but in
the opposite direction. Also called a conventional tire or cross-ply tire
- Bias tire:
A type of tire construction in which the tire cords or
plies run diagonally from bead to bead. Generally in
passenger cars, there are two plies of fabric. In a P185/80D13 tire, the "D"
indicates a bias-ply tire. Sometimes called a "conventional" tire.
Also See:
belted bias tire
- Bib:
- A leather or vinyl covering for the front of a vehicle.
Also See:
tank bib
- Bib-cock:
- A draw-off tap for water-supply, consisting of a plug-cock having a downward curved
extension for discharge.
- Bib-valve:
- A draw-off tap of the kind used for domestic water-supply; closed by screwing down a
rubber washered disk on to a seating in the valve body.
- Bickern:
- See:
beak iron
- Bick iron:
- See:
beak iron
- Biconical horn:
- Two flat cones apex to apex, for radiating uniformly in horizontal directions
when driven from a co-axial line.
Also See:
discone antenna
- Biconvex:
- Said of a lens which is convex on both surfaces.
- Bicycle:
A two-wheel non-motorized vehicle in which the two wheels are not side-by-side but
in line. Also called bike.
Also See:
all terrain bike
coaster
girl's bike
loaded tourer
mixte frame
mountain bike
penny-farthing
quadricycle
randonneuring
recumbent
sports tourer
tandem
tourist
tricycle
unicycle
velocipede
- Bicycle carrier:
A device which is attached to the rear bumper or to the roof of a vehicle to carry
a bicycle.
- Bicycle frame:
The diamond shaped basic section of a bicycle to which the components are added
- Bicycle lock:
A horseshoe-shaped metal locking device which will reach around a small pole (e.g.,
parking meter) and the frame of a bicycle.
-
Bicycle moto cross:
- (BMX)
- A type of racing done on a closed dirt track over obstacles, usually on
20- or 24-inch wheels bikes with one gear.
- A type of bicycle used in BMX races
-
Bi-directional microphone:
- Microphone which is most sensitive in both directions along one axis
-
Bi-directional waveform:
- Waveform which shows reversal of polarity; a bi-directional pulse generator produces
both positive and negative pulses.
- Bifilar pendulum:
- See:
bifilar suspension
- Bifilar resistor:
- Resistor formed by winding a resistor with a hairpin-shaped length of resistance wire,
thus reducing the total inductance.
- Bifilar suspension:
- The suspension of a body by two parallel vertical wires or threads which give a
considerable controlling torque.
- Bifurcated rivet:
- A rivet with a split shank, used for holding together sheets of light material; it is closed
by opening and tapping down the two halves of the shank.
- Big-block:
- See
big-block engine
- Big-block engine:
- A large V-8 engine produced in the '60s and '70s. It typically has a cast-iron block and
head and is fed by a carburetor. Contrasts with
small-block engine. Although both engines
were of the same displacement, the big-block engine was larger in overall size than the
small-block engine. Thus, as vehicles grew smaller and more equipment was stuffed into the
engine bay, the small-block engine was favored over its larger brother.
- Big end:
- The end of the connecting rod which fits around the crankpin.
- The part of the connecting rod which is attached to the crankshaft
- Big-end bearing:
- See
big-end bearing
- Big-end bearing:
The bearing in the end of the connecting rod
that attaches to the crankshaft
- Big-end bolt:
- One of the bolts attaching the big-end cap to
the connecting rod.
Also See:
connecting-rod bolts
- Big-end cap:
- The detachable end of the connecting rod which fits on the crankpin.
- Big Jim:
- A colloquial term for a device for opening door locks. It is a flexible metal strip about
an inch wide and very thin and has a J-shaped end. It is inserted between the door window
and the door frame to trigger the latch.
- Big rig:
- A large truck -- usually a tractor-trailer unit.
- Big/tall rubber:
- Trucker slang for 24 inch tires as in "I just bought new big rubber for my
rig."
- Big three:
- General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.
- Big Twins:
- The engines in the larger Harley-Davidson bikes.
- Bihexagon:
- A twelve-sided figure. Some nuts and bolt heads have twelve sides.
- Bihexagonal:
- Having 12 sides.
- Bihexagon socket:
- A tool socket which fits 12-sided nuts and bolts.
- Bike:
- A two-wheel vehicle -- either a bicycle or a
motorcycle.
Also See:
all-terrain bike
girl's bike
mountain bike
street bike
touring bike
- Bike crossing:
A place on the highway (usually marked by a sign) indicating a relatively safe
place for a bicycle to cross to the other side. Motorists are advised that slow
moving bicycles may be on the road.
- Bike lock:
A horseshoe-shaped metal locking device which will reach around a small pole (e.g.,
parking meter) and the frame of a bicycle.
- BIL:
-
- Acronym for "Bilimportorenes Landsforening" (Norway).
- Acronym for
"Bilindustrieforeningen"
(Sweden)
- Bilateral
impedance:
- Any electrical or electromechanical device through which power can be transmitted in
either direction.
- Bilateral slit:
- A slit used in a spectrometer and consisting of two metal strips whose separation can
be accurately adjusted.
- Bilateral
tolerance:
- A tolerance with dimensional limits above and below the basic size.
- Bilge:
- A recess area fitted at the curved section between the bottom and the side into
which water drains from holds or other spaces.
- The curved part of the shell joining the bottom to the sides.
- The space inside meaning #2, at the sides of the cellular double bottom, into which
unwanted water drains.
- Bilge bracket:
- A vertical transverse flat plate welded to the tank top or margin plate and to the frame
in the area of the bilge.
- Bilge keel:
- A long longitudinal fin fitted on the curved of a ship at the turn of the bilge to reduce
rolling.
- Bilge strake:
- Shell plates at the bilge area.
- Billet:
- A section of a log split lengthwise as you would make firewood.
- A small bar of iron or steel.
- Semifinished solid product which has been hot-worked by extrusion, forging, and
rolling. Smaller than a
bloom
- A piece of timber which has three sides sawn and the fourth left round.
- Billet mills:
- The rolling mills used in reducing steel ingots to billets. Also called billet
rolls
- Billet rolls:
- See:
billet mills
- Billet split lens:
- A device used to produce interference fringes. The two halves of the lens are separated
so that two images of a slit source provide the coherent sources.
-
Billion-electron-volt:
- See:
GeV
- Bill of lading:
-
- The cost or the paperwork describing the cost of a vehicle's
load or freight.
- Itemized list of goods contained in a shipment
- Billy:
- See:
blue billy
- Bi-met:
- See
acl BI-MET
- Bimetal:
- Two types of metal bonded into a strip and formed into a coil. Each type of metal has
different thermal expansion characteristics, so the coil straightens when heated and coils up
when cold. Bimetals are used mainly to open and close choke plates on carbureted
vehicle.
- Bimetal-fuse:
- A fuse element composed of two different metals, e.g., a copper wire coated with tin or
lead.
- Bimetal heat
sensor:
- (BHS) A strip (usually coiled) consisting of two metals with different expansion
characteristics. Bimetal strips are used in thermostatically controlled devices because they
move or bend toward the metal that expands least when heat is applied.
- Bimetallic brake drum:
-
A drum with an aluminum outer drum cast around a preformed iron liner.
- Bimetallic
corrosion:
- When two different metals are attached to each other, some electrons tend to move
from one metal to the other. This action happens especially when there is a little moisture
between the two pieces.
Also See:
galvanic corrosion
- Bimetallic sensor:
- Consists of thermocouple, an arm made of two dissimilar metals with different rates of
thermal expansion, that flexes in accordance with temperature changes. Used as a temperature
sensor. Also called
bimetal sensor
- Bimetallic strip:
- Bonded strip composed of two metals with differing
thermal expansion coefficients; the
strip deflects when one side of the strip expands more than the other. Used e.g., in thermal
switches.
- Bimetal sensor:
- Consists of a thermocouple, an arm made of two dissimilar metals with different rates
of thermal expansion, that flexes in accordance with temperature changes. Used as a
temperature sensor. Also called
bimetallic sensor
- Bimirror:
- A pair of plane mirrors slightly inclined to one another. Used for the production of two
coherent images in interference experiments.
- Bimmer:
- Colloquial term for
BMW
- Bimorph:
- Unit in microphones and vibration detectors in which two piezoelectric plates are
cemented together in such a way that application of potential difference causes one to contract
and the other to expand, so the combination bends as in a
bimetallic strip
- Binary counter:
- Flip-flop or toggle circuit which gives one output pulse for two input pulses, thus
dividing by two
-
Binary frequency shift keying:
- A digital
modulation scheme in which "1" and "0" are
represented by switching the
carrier between two different frequencies. It is 3 dB less
resistant to additive white Gaussian noise interference than
binary phase shift keying
- Binary
phase shift keying:
- A digital
modulation scheme in which "1" and "0" are
represented by reversing the phase of the
carrier. It is 3 dB more resistant to additive white
Gaussian
noise interference than
binary frequency shift
keying
- Binary system:
- An alloy formed by two metals, this is represented by the binary constitutional
diagram for the system. In general, any two-component system.
Also See:
phase diagram
- Binary
vapor-engine:
- A heat-engine using two separate working fluids, generally mercury vapor and steam,
for the high- and low-temperature portions of the cycle respectively, thus enabling a large
temperature range to be used, with improved thermal efficiency.
- Binaural:
- Listening with two-ears, the result of which is a sense of directivity of the arrival of a
sound wave. Said of a stereophonic system with two channels (matched) applying sound to a
pair of ears separately, e.g., by earphones. The effect arises from relative phase delay between
wavefronts at each ear.
- Binder:
-
- Component used in the mix of carbon products, organic brake linings,
sintered metals, tar macadam, etc. to impart cohesion to the body to be formed.
The binder may have cold setting properties, or subsequently be heat-treated to
give it permanent properties as part of the body or to remove it by
volatilization.
- The ingredient in a paint that holds or suspends the
pigment particles together.
- A glue used to hold the various elements of a brake friction material
together
Also See:
binders
- Binder bolt:
- On a
bicycle, the bolt used to fasten a stem inside a
steerer tube or a
seatpost inside a
seat tube. Some are quick-release type.
- Binders:
- Vehicle brakes.
- Binding:
-
- The rubbing of brake shoes against the drum or of brake pads against
the disc.
- The strip material turned over along the edge of a carpet or mat.
Also See:
adhesive binding
edge binding
- Binding energy:
-
- Energy required to remove a particle from a system, e.g., electron,
when it is the ionization potential.
- Energy required to overcome forces of cohesion and disperse a solid
into constituent atoms.
- Of a nucleus, the energy which holds nuclear particles together.
Also See:
fusion
fusion
packing fraction
- Binding wire:
- See:
tie wire
- Bingham flow:
- See
Bingham solid
- Bingham solid:
- Material which shows little tendency to flow until a critical stress is reached (e.g.,
toothpaste or modelling clay). Such materials may be
Newtonian, dilatant (see
dilatancy) or
pseudo-plastic. Also called Bingham
flow
- Bingo cards:
- Trucker slang for the paper cards that hold trucking permits from different states as in
"Better get your bingo cards out, they're checkin' em at the chicken coop."
- Binnacle:
- The cluster of instruments and switches mounted in a circular casing on or near the
steering column.
- Binoculars:
- A pair of telescopes for use with both eyes simultaneously. Essential components are an
objective, an eyepiece and some system of prisms to invert and reverse the image.
- Binomial array:
- A linear array in which the current amplitudes are proportional to the coefficients of a
binomial expansion. Such an array has no side lobes.
- Biocide:
- A product which kills any fungus or microbes that may have contaminated
diesel fuel.
- Bicomposites:
- composite materials which occur in and are
made by living organisms, such as bone, leather.
- Composite materials which replace the function of living tissues or organs in mass,
such as carbon fiber/epoxy resin artificial limbs.
- Biodegradable:
- A product which is capable of being decomposed by bacteria into harmless elements
without danger to the environment.
- Biodiesel:
- Diesel fuel made from animal or vegetable fats.
- Biological
half-life:
- Time interval required for half of a quantity of radioactive material absorbed by a
living organism to be eliminated naturally.
- Biological hole:
- A cavity within a nuclear reactor in which biological specimens are placed for
irradiation experiments.
- Biot laws:
- Laws stating that the rotation produced by optically active media is proportional to the
length of path, to the concentration (for solutions) and to the inverse square of the wavelength
of the light.
- Biot modulus:
- The heat transfer to a wall by a flowing medium, giving the ratio of heat transfer by
convection to that by conduction. Defined as αθ/λ, where
α is the heat transfer coefficient, λ is the thermal conductivity
of medium, and θ is the characteristic length of apparatus.
- Biot-Savart law:
- Expression for the intensity of magnetic flux density produced at a point a distance
from a current-carrying conductor.
- Bi-phase:
- See:
two-phase
- Bi-phase shift
keying:
-
See:
aviation bi-phase shift
keying
- Biplane:
- An aircraft or glider with two main supporting surfaces (two wings on each side) above
one another.
- Bipolar electrode:
- An electrode in an electroplating bath not connected to either the anode or cathode.
Also called secondary electrode.
- Bipolar transistor:
- A transistor that uses both positive and negative charge carriers. Both p-n-p and n-p-n
types of bipolar transistor can be manufactured, as discrete devices, or for incorporation into
integrated circuits.
- Biprism:
- Two prisms of very acute angle placed side by side and used as a focusing aid on
the screens of cameras.
Also See:
pentaprism
- Biquartz:
- A quartz cut perpendicular to the axis, one half of the disk being right-handed and the
other left-handed quartz. The thickness is such that each half rotates the plane of vibration of
yellow light through 90° but in opposite directions. The device is used as a sensitive
analyzer for
saccharimeters
- Bird's beak:
- In microelectronic fabrication; descriptive of the shape of that part of a silicon dioxide
layer grown on a silicon wafer near the edge of a region which is protected from oxidation by
a diffusion barrier.
- Birefringent filter:
- Filter based on the polarization of light which enables a narrow spectral band of
<0.1mm to be isolated, i.e., effectively a
monochromator; used e.g., for photographing
solar flares.
- Birmingham
gauge:
- (BG) Systems of designating the diameters of rods and wires by numbers. Obsolescent,
being replaced by preferred metric dimensions.
- Birmingham
wire gauge:
- (BWG) Systems of designating the diameters of rods and wires by numbers.
Obsolescent, being replaced by preferred metric dimensions.
- Birox resistor:
- Resistor made from a thick film or bismuth ruthenate fired with a glass; noted for
stability.
- Bismuth spiral:
- Flat coil of bismuth wire used in magnetic flux measurements; the change of flux is
measured by observing the change in resistance of the bismuth wire, which increases with
increasing fields.
- Bistable circuit:
- Valve or transistor circuit which has two stable states which can be decided by input
signals, much used in counters and scalers.
- Bisynchronous
motor:
- A motor like an ordinary synchronous motor but running at twice synchronous
speed.
- Bit:
-
- A tool for boring or cutting which fits into a drill.
- The tip of a screwdriver.
Also See:
drill bit
hexagon bit
hex bit
screwdriver bit
socket bit
twisty bits
- Bit adapter:
- A tool (like a screwdriver) with a hollow socket (instead of the blade) to accept a
variety of bits.
- Bite:
- A vehicle's ability to adhere to the road (especially to a racing track).
- The ability of a tool to secure itself to a fastener as in I want my wrench to get
a good bite on that bolt.
- Bit error ratio:
- The rate at which erroneous
bits are received over a link, expressed as a proportion of
the overall bit rate. In good systems the bit error ratio can be less than 1 in 10
9 .
- Bits:
-
See:
twisty bits
- Bitter end:
- The inboard end of a ship's anchor chain that is secured in the chain locker.
- Bitter pattern:
- A pattern showing boundaries of magnetic domains on the surface of a magnetic
material, formed by applying a colloidal suspension of a magnetic powder. The particles
accumulate where the domain boundaries intersect the surface.
- Bituminous paint:
- Black or dark colored tarry paint which contains bitumen. Used for the protection of
exposed metal parts.
- Bivet:
- Flexible bag for transporting fuel, often slung beneath a helicopter.
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