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As a business, it is important to keep up with manufacturing technologies that may improve your business offering; the photo etching process will streamline your manufacturing process and cut down on lead times offered to your customers.

The worst thing in business is going back to a customer and having to tell them that you cannot meet their deadline, especially if it means your business is missing out on a lucrative contract to a competitor. Not only does it mean missing out on that project, but it more often than not means missing out on the next too.

Accurate and Efficient

Photo etching is both an accurate and efficient manufacturing process that offers the highest quality of components, produced quickly even for high volume demands.

Customer designs are processed via DXF CAD files to produce a profile artwork of the shape to be etched, whilst photoresist is applied to the cleaned sheets of metal before printing.

Unlike other processes, such as stamping, punching or laser cutting, the finished product retains all of its original mechanical properties at the end of the etching process as the metal components have been put under no stress or pressure leaving them burr and stress-free.

All parts are produced perfectly to specification with all chemicals removed during the washing and rinsing processes.

Versatility

Photo etching allows for a wide variety of metals to be used, including aluminium, copper, brass, nickel, silver, stainless steel and, most popularly, steel.

Ferric chloride is used as a chemical etchant in the process – this can be used on either hard or soft condition materials, thus ensuring the versatility of photo etching, meaning that Qualitetch will meet the demands of its customers each and every time.

It is also possible to half-etch metals with the photo etching process – this is commonly done when applying a logo, part number or other design features to the material.

Costs

As well as being quick and easy, photo etching is also very cost effective when compared to other machining methods. Along with typical lead times of a couple of days, photo etching is, by far, the best choice when looking to produce high-quality components within a tight timeframe – for minimal costs on thin gauge metal components.

Due to the variety of metals that can be used, it is also possible to keep costs down dependent on the material, and thickness of the material, used.

If you require any further information on how best to use photo etching for the benefit of your company, please call the Qualitetch team on 01354 658787.