Chemical Etching vs Laser Cutting and Stamping: The Economic Advantages of Photo Chemical Etching

Описание: Photo Etching is a non conventional machining process that rivals laser cutting, wire electro discharge machining (Wire EDM) and stamping, to produce components. Dependant upon the component design, photo etching can be a very economic method of manufacture.

The most economic production method depends to some extent on the thickness of the component you are manufacturing.

If we consider a simple component, such as a washer, you normally find for very large volumes you would resort to Stamping, where you can invest in hard tooling. If you only want to make one or two prototypes, then perhaps you might use Wire EDM. In between those extremes there is a battle between Photo Etching and Laser Cutting.

If we look at a 2mm thick simple component, it becomes less economic to make small quantities by Wire EDM, and Photo Chemical Machining is pushed out to a certain extent by Laser Cutting, because it takes a long time to etch through a very thick material.

Photo Etching etching really excels when you are producing very complex parts. Unlike Laser Cutting, we etch all of the features simultaneously, so the more complex the component, the more the economics favour Photo Etching as a method of production.

The tooling for Stamping can be extremely expensive, because it may entail making many tool sets. With Photo Etching, we can etch 20 or 30 tonnes of metal per week and still make very complex parts, very economically.

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