Secondary Services
Etchit offers a wide range of secondary services in addition to our photochemical process. We take great pride in offering our customer full process solutions which streamline projects from conception to completion. Many times secondary processes are performed by outside vendors who have been vetted and are currently on our Approved Vendor Supply List. Great care is taken to use ITAR registered, ISO and NADCAP certified vendors when required. Our secondary solutions include, but are not limited to:
- Plating Services
- Heat Treating Services
- Passivation Services
- Forming and Bending Services
Please contact Etchit today regarding photochemical machining and our secondary services.
Secondary Services Terms
Metal Plating – describes surface-covering where a metal is deposited on a conductive surface. Plating has been done for hundreds of years, but it is also critical for modern technology. Plating is used to decorate objects, for corrosion inhibition, to improve solderability, to harden, to improve wearability, to reduce friction, to improve paint adhesion, to alter conductivity, for radiation shielding, and for other purposes.
Heat Treating Metal – is a method used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatment involves the use of heating or chilling, normally to extreme temperatures, to achieve a desired result such as hardening or softening of a material. Heat treatment techniques include annealing, case hardening, precipitation strengthening and tempering.
Passivation – is the process of making a material “passive” in relation to another material prior to using the materials together. For example, prior to storing hydrogen peroxide in an aluminum container, the container can be passivated by rinsing it with a dilute solution of nitric acid and peroxide alternating with deionized water. The nitric acid and peroxide oxidizes and dissolves any impurities on the inner surface of the container, and the deionized water rinses away the acid and oxidized impurities. Another typical passivation process of cleaning stainless steel tanks involves cleaning with sodium hydroxide and citric acid followed by nitric acid (up to 20% at 120 °F) and a complete water rinse.
In the context of corrosion, passivation is the spontaneous formation of a hard non-reactive surface film that inhibits further corrosion. This layer is usually an oxide or nitride that is a few atoms thick.
Forming and Bending – Etchit flat blanks can be formed primarily using two different methods. For more complex forms and larger quantity projects, hard tooling can be built to form to the required dimensions. For smaller quantity and lower tolerance requirements, half-etch scribe lines can be manufactured into the flat blank for hand forming at a later date.