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Definition
In terms of a production engineering process (Allen 2004), etching is better defined as a material removal process by accelerated, controlled corrosion, comprising a heterogeneous chemical reaction in which a liquid (or, more rarely, a gas) reacts with a solid material and oxidizes it to produce a soluble (or volatile gaseous) reaction product.
Theory and Application
Etching as a Process Employed in Manufacturing and Production Technology
The “art” of etching (Chamberlain 1972) was developed into a production process for the graphic arts, printing, and die-making industries, utilizing chemical etching and photoresist imaging to produce printing plates and dies by etching the surface of metals such as copper, zinc, and magnesium alloys. This process is commonly known as photoengraving (Wallis and Cannon 1969).
A further variation of this technique, developed in the late 1950s, led to etching completely...
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References
Allen DM (1981) Anisotropic etching microtechnology. Precis Eng 3(3):161–166
Allen DM (1986) The principles and practice of photochemical machining and photoetching. IOP Publishing, Bristol, p 4
Allen DM (1993) Progress towards clean technology for photochemical machining. CIRP Ann 42(1):197–200
Allen DM (2004) Photochemical machining: from ‘manufacturing’s best kept secret’ to a $6 billion per annum, rapid manufacturing process. CIRP Ann 53(2):559–572
Allen DM (2016) Photochemical machining and photoelectroforming. ISBN:978-1-5262-01881-1
Allen DM, Gillbanks PJ, Palmer AJ (1989) The selection of an appropriate method to manufacture thin sheet metal parts based on technical and financial considerations. In: Proceedings of 9th international symposium for electro-machining, Nagoya, pp 246–249
Allen DM, Esho G, Almond HJA (2012) Design and novel fabrication of cylindrical magnesium stents. In: Proceedings of PROMED 2012 conference, Brescia
Bellows G (1977) Chemical machining: production with chemistry. Metcut Research Associates, Cincinnati, p 25
Chamberlain W (1972) The Thames and Hudson manual of etching and engraving. Thames and Hudson, London, p 11
Dini JW (1984) Fundamentals of chemical milling. Am Mach 128(7):113–128
Harris WT (1976) Chemical milling: the technology of cutting materials by etching. Clarendon Press, Oxford, pp 140–209
Madou MJ (2002) Fundamentals of microfabrication: the science of miniaturization, 2nd edn. CRC Press, Boca Raton
Wallis FG, Cannon RV (1969) Letterpress platemaking. Pergamon Press, Oxford, p 11
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Allen, D. (2019). Etching. In: Chatti, S., Tolio, T. (eds) CIRP Encyclopedia of Production Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35950-7_6482-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35950-7_6482-4
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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