Although at first glance photo chemical machining, also known as photofabrication, might seem like an expensive and overly elaborate way to manufacture your components, it actually comes out to be significantly cheaper and faster than standard industrial tooling. Whether you are planning to produce radio frequency shields for electronic equipment, micro antennas or even mesh for producing ketchup, photochemical etching is a dependable and high quality specialty service that can manufacture your parts almost exactly to the specifications of your computer aided design.

The two main advantages of chemical etching are speed and accuracy, which are precisely what makes this method particularly attractive to many manufacturers. Unlike traditional manufacturing equipment, which you need to maintain and calibrate and still only completes one product at a time, by using acid etching a company is able to produce thousands of products all in the same run. This is because photo chemical machining allows you to print the CAD designed mask directly onto the sheet metal and then run it through a single acid bath to manufacture many different components rather than individually.

You can cut the costs of manufacturing parts with chemical machining by regenerating (recycling) the etching agent to be reused in the future, and it is even possible to extract the etched material from the acid during this process. Since acid etching utilizes hazardous material this reduces the costs of disposal and even helps preserve the environment, too.

In sum photochemical etching is cost effective due to its ability to manufacture many different parts at the same time, reducing the costs associated with longer processes, and is capable of recycling its own byproducts to be used again in the future, keeping as much of the process in a closed loop as possible. When combined with the fine precision resulting from a lack of burrs or tooling marks these factors make it apparent why it is such a popular option in the industrial sectors.