Nickel Silver Etching

Nickel Silver is an extremely useful metal due to its high resistance to heat and corrosion

This makes Nickel Silver a popular choice when developing a variety of components particularly RFI, EMC & EMI screening cans and shields for PCB's . At Qualitetch, we are able to offer both Nickel or Nickel Silver for any applications you require.

Photo etching is a precise and intricate manufacturing process used to produce high-quality metal components with fine detail and accuracy. When applied to nickel silver, it showcases exceptional versatility and durability, making it a preferred material for various industries.

Nickel silver, despite its name, doesn't contain silver. Instead, it's an alloy composed primarily of copper, nickel, and zinc. This amalgamation results in a metal that boasts excellent corrosion resistance, high ductility, and superb electrical conductivity, making it an ideal choice for photo chemical etching.

The chemical etching process begins with a sheet of nickel silver, which undergoes a meticulous sequence of steps. Initially, the metal is thoroughly cleaned and prepared to ensure the surface is free from impurities. A light-sensitive photoresist material is then applied to both sides of the sheet, creating a protective layer.

Next comes the phototooling stage, where a precise photographic image of the desired component is transferred onto the photoresist using UV light. This exposure creates a chemical reaction, hardening the areas that correspond to the intended design while leaving the rest of the photoresist unchanged.

Subsequently, the sheet is submerged in an etchant solution, typically a ferric chloride acid, which selectively removes the unprotected areas of the metal. The etchant dissolves the unhardened photoresist and chemically erodes the exposed metal, leaving behind the intricately designed components.

The etching process allows for unparalleled precision and intricacy, enabling the creation of intricate patterns, fine meshes, complex geometries, and precise features on the nickel silver sheet. It can produce components with tolerances as tight as a few micrometers, ensuring consistent and accurate parts.

The advantages of photo etching for nickel silver components are manifold. Firstly, it allows for cost-effective production of intricate designs without the need for expensive tooling or extensive machining. It offers flexibility in design iterations and customization, accommodating rapid prototyping and efficient production of small to large batches.

Moreover, the process retains the material properties of nickel silver, such as its electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance, ensuring that the final components meet stringent performance requirements across various applications. This makes it highly sought after in industries like electronics, aerospace, automotive, and medical devices.

Components produced through photochemical etching in nickel silver find application in diverse fields. They might include intricate electrical contacts and connectors in electronic devices, precision filters and screens for industrial applications, ornamental and decorative elements, as well as specialized components in aerospace and medical devices where reliability and precision are paramount.

In conclusion, chemical etching of nickel silver is a sophisticated manufacturing technique that leverages the properties of this alloy to create intricate, precise, and durable components. Its versatility, coupled with the ability to produce intricate designs with exceptional precision, makes it a highly favoured method in various industries demanding high-quality metal components

Even the most intricate of designs are possible with our cost-efficient and eminently accurate Photo Chemical Etching process. The metal when finished profile cutting via etching will be burr and stress-free, and retaining all of its essential properties.

Following the finalisation of your design, we first clean the raw material nickel silver sheet and then the coat the sheet with a UV sensitive photo-resist, before then printing your required profile directly onto the UV photo resist covered sheet. After this, the material is then passed through a sprayed chemical bath solution of ferric chloride, which is used as our etchant to cut your profile design. Our chemical etching process works equally well for both soft annealed, half hard or fully hard metals, which effectively, we then acid etch a thin track line to an exacting standard to ensure your components are manufactured to your drawing design.

Any trace of photo-resist are then removed once the process has been finished. The parts are then approved by our team of QA and compliance technicians.

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