CNC Machining Services

Silver is one of the most common precious metals around the world
We use it to create important everyday parts and components, as well as delicate and intricate jewellery designs. Silver can be found in everything from cutlery, mirrors and cufflinks through to parts for clocks, electronic equipment and appliances, circuit boards, batteries and vehicles − and much more besides; you are likely to come across photo etched silver on a daily basis.

The process of photo etching silver is just as flexible and accurate as other metal materials. However, because of how silver reacts with chemicals, we use a different chemical etchant − Ferric Nitrate − to ensure we produce the same high manufacturing standards at all times.

Other than the difference in chemistry used the etching process itself is exactly the same for silver parts as when acid etching other metals.
Alongside the highly accurate and cost-effective photo etching service, silver can also be used to plate and finish parts that have been manufactured using other materials.

Stainless steel photo etching is one of the most common materials we etch.
Otherwise known as chemical etching, chemi etching, acid etching, chemical milling and PCM Qualitetch can help with your designs.

This metal is a very popular choice for chemical etching due to the non corrosion qualities of stainless steel and that parts generally in this material do not require additional plating & finishing once the material has been etched. Stainless steel is available in many grades and conditions such as annealed, half hard and full hard and in grades such as 304, 1.4301, 1.4310, 430S17, 316S11, 316L, 17-7PH, 321S31, S526, S527, 1.4307, 1.4404 and many others.

We manufacture both flat & formed components using stainless steels, with the aid of our photo chemical etching process, and we have our own dedicated in-house tool-room toolmaking team on hand to UK manufacture bespoke form tooling of all designations. The form tools we manufacture are everything from very simple knife and fork tools, such as simple 90 degree or 45 degree bend tools, through to more complex open tools in die sets and progression tools for 3d formed components parts to ensure the highest quality standards are met whilst meeting lead-time requirements of approximately 15 working days for new part metal components.

Qualitetch offers a total metal component solution for parts, and as well as photo etching we offer many other services and processes for UK manufacturing of thin gauge metal parts. We can also offer stainless steel components manufactured using other processes such as metal stamping / punching and EDM wire erosion & laser cutting of part of our services.

Nickel Silver is an extremely useful metal due to its high resistance to heat and corrosion

This makes Nickel Silver a popular choice when developing a variety of components particularly RFI, EMC & EMI screening cans and shields for PCB's . At Qualitetch, we are able to offer both Nickel or Nickel Silver for any applications you require.

Even the most intricate of designs are possible with our cost-efficient and eminently accurate Photo Chemical Etching process. The material when finished profile cutting via etching will be burr and stress-free, and retaining all of its essential properties.

Following the finalisation of your design, we first clean the raw material nickel silver sheet and then the coat the sheet with a UV sensitive photo-resist, before then printing your required profile directly onto the UV photo resist covered sheet. After this, the material is then passed through a sprayed chemical bath solution of ferric chloride, which is used as our etchant to cut your profile design. Our chemical etching process works equally well for both soft annealed, half hard or fully hard metals, which effectively, we then acid etch a thin track line to an exacting standard to ensure your components are manufactured to your drawing design.