Metal etching offers a very fast turnaround alternate solution to other processes such as stamping, punching, water jet or laser cutting particularly for very fine feature complex metal components from 0.0127mm – 1.60mm thick in most metal types.
How does the process work?
- The metal is cut, cleaned and then laminated with a blue UV photo-sensitive resist, which is then printed with your desired CAD artwork design profile.
- After printing your design, the metal is then developed, which effectively washes away any unexposed photoresist from the print process, leaving a raw metal profile track line for the etchant to etch through the metal.
- After etching out the profile design, we simply remove the blue UV photo sensitive resist to leave the raw metal parts either loose or tabbed into the larger fretwork sheet.
- Click the link here to see the complete process start to finish https://youtu.be/xZANSwZ8cI0
Metal Etching Benefits include:
- Photo etching is a completely burr free and stress-free process with no mechanical force or heat being applied to the metal parts during production.
- Artwork is in CAD format and transferred to an acetate photo-tool, therefore any design changes are very simple amend and very fast implement and cost effective. We offer FREE photo-tool artwork at Qualitetch, once you supply a DXF of your required profile, but many of our competitors charge up to £100+ for this service.
- Our photo etching process does not recognise the complexity of your design therefore components with many holes such as meshes can be manufactured at no additional cost than a simple shape profile.
- Tolerances offered from +-0.025mm dependant on material type and thickness.
- FAST lead-times with parts available within a few days.
What metals do we work with?
Stainless steels and spring & mild steels
If Qualitetch can assist with your next metal component project then please contact our sales team today on 01354 658787 sales@qualitetch.com or www.qualitetch.com for more info.
