Flat, Precise, Burr-Free Parts Fast
with Photo Chemical Etching

Fast Delivery // Because no hard tooling is required, we can fulfill many orders within a few days. Complex part designs may take up to a week. Photo chemical etching produces multiple parts from a single sheet of metal. Little or no finishing is required.

No Changes to the Integrity of the Metal // Many types of manufacturing, such as machining and laser cutting, can cause thermal stresses in the metal adjacent to the cut. They can also cause changes to the hardness, ductility or grain structure of the metal. Chemical milling doesn’t affect the internal structure of the metal.

Build Complex Yet Affordable Flat Parts // Industrial chemical etching enables you to create parts with fine details and complex geometries that aren’t possible to make using hard tools. You can also use it to fabricate parts in dead soft or full hard material without burrs or metal distortion.

Low-Cost Tooling //We produce films for photo chemical etched parts directly from your CAD drawings. No hard tools or work-holding fixtures are needed. That helps to maximize the cost-effectiveness of photo chemical etching.

Easy, Fast and Inexpensive Prototype Parts // Photo chemical etching uses films to create parts. That means you can iterate your designs quickly and affordably. The same process we use to create prototype parts is used to make your production parts.

Burr-Free Parts // Burrs are a common side effect of many types of metal processing. In contrast, the etching process produces a clean, smooth surface. It’s free of burrs and eliminates the need for manual finishing processes.

Flat parts we manufacture using industrial chemical etching are often shipped to Fathom Ithaca for bending as well as laser cutting, water jet cutting or machining. PEM nuts or tapped threads are sometimes added to holes etched into flat metal parts.