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Photo chemical machining is known by a number of
names including PCM, photo etching, Photo etching,
and chemical milling. All of these names describe
the same fabricating process.
We use a stencil, which we call a photo tool, to
expose multiple images of the parts to be made on
both sides of a sheet of raw
material that has been coated with a light sensitive
and acid resistant material, called “resist.” After
the images of the parts have been developed, and
the uncured resist washed
away, we remove the metal around the parts by dissolving
it in etching chemistry. The resulting parts have
no burrs or deformations
of the raw material that can occur with other processes
such as punching, stamping, and waterjet or laser-cutting.
Photo etching is frequently the process of choice because
the tooling is inexpensive and can be produced very quickly,
the parts are
very precise and consistent, and the process is
particularly effective when the shape of the part is complex
and/or the part
contains many holes or internal cut-outs.
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Advantages
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Phototools
can be rapidly and inexpensively
regenerated to accommodate revisions
to parts.
> See Other Advantages
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You
send us data files (dxf, dwg,
etc.) so that we can generate
the phototools. We can work
from paper drawings or sketches...
> See the Work Process
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What
is Photo Chemical Machining?
