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FAQ about photo-etching
Parti per micromecanica in fotoincisione What's the "photo-etching"?

The method of photo etching, or chemical machining, is a sophisticated system to cut and engrave with precision metal plates, even very thin ones, that replaces to your advantage the traditional shearing and engraving. The drawing of the requested pieces is made on the computer, and then "photographed" on the metal plate. An elaborated process of acid baths melts the margins, cuts and engraves the plates even on several levels.

Parti per occhialeria in fotoincisione What types of pieces can I do?

Parts for metal glasses and ornaments for plastic glasses, parts for micromechanics and electronics, parts for fuel cells, special series of valuable objects, parts for pens and clocks, pieces for railway or motoring modelism, modern art objects, clothes accessories, jewelry, metallic labels, etc...


Medaglie in fotoincisioneWhat kind of finishing can I get for the engraved pieces?

The pieces are usually delivered as "plates" with smooth surfaces polished aspect, with two little clamps (attachs) that can be easily removed. The copper (brass, bronze and nickel silver) alloys can easily be tin brazed or welded with silver alloys, polished with abrasive wheels or vibration and strainer systems.
The Exella materials are tested to accept all the most frequent galvanic treatments (with copper, nickel, silver, gold, rhodium, etc). The beryl copper can be submitted to several thermal treatments, to obtain surprising elastic and durability characteristics (even more than 400 Vickers).


In which materials can I use for my orders?

Brass, Bronze and special bronzes, Nickel Silver, Beryl Copper, Aluminium, Silver, ordinary and special Steel and Stainless Steel (inox). The plates can have formats starting from 100 x 300 mm to 400 x 1000 mm, with thickness from 0.03 to 1.20 mm.

What do I need to produce the pieces?

A pattern or a design on paper, or in any of the following graphical formats: dwg, dxf (AutoCAD or other software that use these formats), rhn (Rhinoceros), stl, igs, cdr (Coreldraw), ai (Illustrator), pdf, fh11, tiff, bmp, tga, eps, etc... Even a photo can be enough, if provided with the most important dimensions.
Technical and informative sheets are available in EXELLA's website datasheets section.

Are the moulds expensive?

The photo-etching process doesn't require traditional moulds. The plates are masked before engraving in acid using a digital high definition process (xmos).
At the beginning of the production of every article, and only for the first time, a fee is charged for preparing the file, a fee consisting in a few tens of euro, depending on the complexity of the model.

What's the minimum quantity I can order?

You can order even 10 small plates (or all the pieces contained in them), and the prices don't depend on the quantity. The products are shipped by express delivery.