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What is Chemical Etching

Chemical etching (also known as photo etching, wet etching or chemical milling) is a photo-lithographic process whereby a phototool is used to block UV light from exposing the area of a sheet of metal which has first been cleaned and laminated with photoresist. The sheet is developed which washes away the unexposed photoresist leaving a very precise mask of hardened photoresist behind. This patterned sheet is then exposed to concentrated etchants which very precisely dissolve any exposed material.

There are 8 steps in the chemical etching process. They are:

  1. Phototooling
  2. Exposing
  3. Coating
  4. Developing
  5. Etching
  6. Stripping
  7. Forming
  8. Inspection

To read more details on each step of the process, see our page on the Chemical Etching Process.

What materials can be chemically etched?

There is a wide range of materials that can be chemically etched, from pure metals and hard to machine alloys. Some examples of common metals we etch are:

  • Aluminum
  • Brass
  • Bronze
  • Copper
  • Monel
  • Nickel
  • Stainless Steel
  • Titanium

To see the full list of materials we chemically etch, see our page on our Metals We Etch list.

Photo Chemical Etching Process

Photochemically Etched Parts

Advantages of Chemical  Etching

Etched Screens

Fotofab, LLC

3758 W Belmont Ave. Chicago, IL 60618

773-463-6211

sales@fotofab.com

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Etching
Forming
Rapid Prototyping
& Many More

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Aluminum
Beryllium Copper
Stainless Steel
& Many More

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