What are the uses of etching?

Etching, usually referred to as etching, is also called photochemical etching. It refers to the removal of the protective film of the area to be etched after exposure and development. During etching, it contacts the chemical solution to achieve the effect of dissolution and corrosion, forming a concave-convex or hollow-out effect.

Etching is a process that uses this principle to customize metal processing.

Uses of etching:

(1) Deburring. Since stainless steel plates have burrs on the end faces or corners after punching or machining, it not only affects the appearance of the product, but also affects the use of the machine. If mechanical polishing or manual deburring is used, not only the work efficiency is low, but also it cannot meet the design requirements for rounded corners and chamfers. Special chemical polishing or electrochemical polishing solutions are used to corrode the burrs without damaging the surface finish, and can even improve the surface finish. This is a combination of surface treatment and machining.

(2) Removing excess size. For example, the wire diameter of a stainless steel spring wire is required to be φ0.8~0.84, but the actual wire diameter is 0.9. How to make the finished product uniformly become φ0.8~0.84? How to effectively remove the burrs in the machining process and the oxide film generated in the heat treatment process? If mechanical polishing and pliers are used to remove burrs, oxide scales and 0.06~0.1mm uniformly on the circumference of the wire diameter, not only the processing technology is poor, the efficiency is low, and the processing quality is difficult to guarantee. Using a special solution for chemical polishing, the purpose of removing burrs, oxide scales and uniformly removing excess wire diameter can be achieved at the same time. For example, for some sheet stainless steel parts with larger sizes, special electrochemical polishing solutions can also be used to appropriately thin the thickness size to meet the product size requirements.

(3) Milling processing. The part of the stainless steel material that needs to be processed is exposed to a chemical milling liquid for milling processing, so as to obtain parts of a certain shape or size, so as to achieve the purpose of having a three-dimensional sense and decorative effect. Using screen printing, text, patterns, and designs can be chemically milled on the surface of stainless steel to a certain depth, and then filled with certain different colors, such as medals, signs, nameplates, etc.