Precision Micro provides a market-leading stainless steel etching service, delivering millions of etched components each year to leading global brands — that’s why we are one of the world’s largest photochemical etching companies.
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Stainless steel etching process
Stainless steel etching starts with a photoresist laminated steel sheet printed with a CAD image of the component. This is selectively etched with ferric chloride, a safe to use, recyclable etchant chemistry.
Suitable steel and stainless steel grades
We chemically etch ferritic/martensitic, austenitic, duplex and precipitation hardened stainless steel grades from stock. We also machine specialist grades, including Sandvik Chromflex strip steels, and work with customer-supplied metals.
| Low carbon (mild) steel | All grades |
| Electrical steel | Transil |
| Maraging steel | All grades |
| Sandvik strip steel | Chromflex (7C27Mo2, 13C26, 12C27, 6C27), Hiflex |
| Uddeholmstrip flapper valve steel | 20C, 716 |
| High carbon (spring) steel | All grades |
| Stainless steel | Austenitic (300 series), ferritic/martensitic (400 series), precipitation hardened (17-4, 17-7), duplex, super duplex |
Etched stainless steel components
Chemical etching offers a number of benefits for product applications that require economical complexity and stress and burr-free features, all delivered in short lead times.
- Safety-critical springs and flexures used in satellites, ABS braking, biosensors and fuel injection can now flex millions of times because stainless steel etching does not alter the fatigue strength, recoil and flatness of spring steels.
- Complex, corrosion-resistant micro-filters used in showerheads and insect meshes can be manufactured in economical production volumes, as etching only charges for the first hole.
- Etching does not alter the surface finish of stainless steel and is specified for premium automotive interior trim applications, including speaker grilles, tread plates, badges and inlays.
Benefits at a glance
- Prototype to volume — fast
- Unlimited complexity – you only pay for the first hole
- No hard tooling
- Low-cost design iterations — fast
- Burr-and stress-free – metal properties unaffected
- Lead-times in days, not months
- All steel grades
- Accuracy to ±0.025mm
