Chemical engraving, known as “chemical milling” or “industrial milling”, is a process of subtraction in production. It involves immersing or spraying metals with temperature-controlled chemicals to remove specific areas of the metal to create any desired shape, thickness, and complex design or geometric properties.
With chemical etching, manufacturers can create metal parts even with the most difficult and complex designs, all with high repeatability and consistent production.
How does chemical etching work?
The traditional chemical corrosion process consists of several steps:
Cleaning: This step includes preparing a metal surface to be conditioned by removing grease, oil, debris and other contaminants. Cleaning is an extremely important step due to contaminated surfaces. This can result in poor adhesion of the photoresist film, which will cause damage. After performing this procedure, workers should not handle the material with bare hands, as sweat and oil from human skin can contaminate the material.
Coating: This step involves the application of a photo-resistant film of dry film on the surface of the photo-resistance, protecting the areas of the metal that will not be attacked. These films are applied to both sides simultaneously by ironing or coating the material with pressure, temperature and, sometimes, water.
Exposure: In this phase, the material is guided between two “masks” with a negative image of the creative component. These masks are made of glass or milar.After that, the high-intensity ultraviolet light shines from both directions through the film-linking mask in a place where the light is not blocked by the mask image.
Development: After touching, the material should be developed. This chemically solves the unbound film that reveals the bare metal beneath it. The material left by the protective film will end up being the finished product.
Recordings: after development, the metal is inserted into the recording chamber, which simultaneously ejects the recorder from above and below. This process engraves or melts unprotected metals to obtain the desired product. A corrosive bath requires careful monitoring of the concentration, composition, temperature and time of the bath.
Stripping: At this stage, the film is removed from the corrosive product by another concentration of chemistry.
Washing and drying: At this stage, the product is finished and the film is removed. A major wash is necessary to remove all debris. This is done with reverse osmosis water and deionized water.
Etching (reel-to-reel)
Much progress has been made in the chemical corrosion process, allowing roll-to-roll processing, vertical integration, greater tolerances and repeatability and better market time. With these innovations, you can now use a half-notch process for more special and challenging applications, including sharp edges and edges, capillary grooves, hand cuts, and other advanced features. The Interplex also uses a process control system. Fully computerized to ensure consistent and consistently high quality of the product during processing and excellent repeatability.
Reel-to-Reel Etching’s Benefits
The use of a strictly controlled roll-to-roll modeling process is essential to maintain close tolerances and high reproducibility combined with high throughput. Unlike panel split parts, roll-to-roll split panels are essentially friendly to automation and allow smooth integration of secondary processing steps. For example, engraved metal parts can be easily molded, coated or inserted with different types of automatic equipment.
The main advantages of roll sculpture include:
Very strict tolerances for small features with very high repeatability and consistency.
Greater repeatability and consistency, which significantly reduces overall quality costs, especially in applications with high reliability.
Precise, shell-free metal parts with ultra-thin spacing, intricate contours and 3D feature profiles that were not available in traditional metal stamping processes.
Parts engraved with chemical chemicals can be manufactured in a high volume environment, reducing tools and production costs, improving the time to market.
Roll-to-roll embossing parts can be offered in other automated processes, such as forming, galvanizing, insert forming and assembly on a pulley, further reducing overall production costs.