Chamfer

Also called bevel, arris break, edge break

A flat facet cutting across an edge at an angle — typically 45°, and specified as a distance and an angle rather than as a radius. It meets both adjoining faces at a hard line: G0, not tangent. Its purpose is to break a sharp arris for safe handling and to lead a fastener or a mating part into place.

A cross-section through a right-angled corner with a flat facet cutting across it at forty-five degrees, its two leg distances dimensioned and the two hard corner lines marked.

In practice

Strictly, a chamfer is flat and a bevel is any angled cut across a whole face — the edge of a mirror. Machinists hold that line; DCC tools do not, and 'bevel' there is the operation that makes chamfers, fillets, and everything between.

Not to be confused with

FilletA rounded transition replacing a sharp edge, generated by rolling a circle of fixed or varying radius into the corner and trimming both faces back to where it touches. Tangent to both surfaces by construction — G1 at minimum. It removes the stress concentration at an interior corner, so it is a structural feature before it is a cosmetic one.

Origin

Old French chanfraindre, from chant (edge, via Latin cantus) plus fraindre (to break) — literally to break the edge, which is precisely what it does.

How this term connects

Related Confused with

In practice

Not to be confused with

Origin

Related

How this term connects

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