Photochemical etching (also known as Photochemical machining (PCM)) is the process of fabricating sheet metal components using a photoresist and etchants to corrosively machine away selected areas.
Photochemical etching can produce highly complex parts with very fine detail accurately and economically with quick turnaround. This process can offer economical alternatives to stamping, punching, laser or water jet cutting, or wire electrical discharge machining for thin gauge precision parts. Common products are lead frames, connectors, filters, metallic belts, and encoders. Advantek Engineering Inc. has produced many systems for the Photochemical Etch industry including a 11 axis servo system with custom designed low provide XYZ linear actuators and automated Vision alignment of the upper and lower mask to less than a micron. This system used reel to reel material handling with servo tensioning and servo indexing using closed loop phasing with a linear optical encoder providing indexing accuracy of 2 microns.
To assure minimum particle contamination in the clean room environment, Advantek Engineering Inc. has several Tack Roll Cleaner designs used for surface cleaning in many applications. Advantek Engineering Inc. also supplies material Pay Offs, film removal, accumulators, vision inspection, and multiple reel Take Ups.
