Chemical Etching is a technique used to engrave metals in an extremely accurate manner. It consists of a chemical engraving in which the corrosive action of an acid is used to etch the desired area.
The metal sheet is cut, cleaned and set up to be covered in a photosensitive film (dry film) and exposed to a special light thanks to which the areas that can be etched by the acid are defined. Using acid allows to monitor the etching depth and to engrave the sheet on different levels:
The advantages of Chemical Etching
The advantages of chemical etching compared to any other type of mechanical processing are due to a very high accuracy of details thanks to minimal tolerances.
Furthermore, the cut is sharp and precise.
We guarantee fast sampling and production thanks to our great flexibility on quantities.
The system costs are low and their realisation time is very short.
Design complexity does not affect the realisation cost.
During the chemical etching the properties of the materials remain unchanged, meaning they do not undergo any chemical/physical alteration. This is a very important advantage that no other processing can guarantee.
We can work with a wide range of materials, with thicknesses going from 0,05 mm to 3,00 mm.
Complementary processing techniques
Thanks to the experience developed throughout the years, Fotomeccanica is able to provide additional processing techniques to complete the photo-etching process, such as high-quality galvanic plating treatments, enameling, bending, electropolishing and tumbling.
Dimensional thicknesses and tolerances
Thanks to the photo-etching technology, very low dimensional tolerances can be reached, up to a minimum of +/- 15 micron. Precision and scrupulousness are the key elements of each of our creations.
Some examples:
| Engravable thicknesses (mm) | Dimensional tolerances | |
|---|---|---|
| A | mm 0,05 | +/- 0,02 |
| B | mm 0,10 | +/- 0,03 |
| C | mm 0,25 | +/- 0,05 |
| D | mm 0,50 | +/- 0,08 |
| E | mm 0,60 | +/- 0,10 |
| F | mm 0,80 | +/- 0,11 |
| G | mm 1,00 | +/- 0,12 |
| H | mm 1,50 | +/- 0,15 |
| I | mm 2,00 | +/- 0,15 |
