CHEMICAL MACHINING

(CHM)
 Introduction
1. In CHM, material is removed from a workpiece by exposing it to a
chemical reagent or etchant. The mechanism for metal removal is the
chemical reaction between the etchant and the workpiece resulting in
dissolution of the workpiece.

2. Chemical machining (CM) was developed based on the observation that

chemicals attack metals and etch them, thereby removing small
amounts of material from the surface. This process is carried out by
chemical dissolution, using reagents or etchants, such as acids and
alkaline solutions.

3. Chemical machining is the oldest of the nontraditional machining

processes, and has been used to engrave metals and hard stones, in
deburring, and more recently in the production of printed-circuit boards
and microprocessor chips.

4. The most common method of CHM involves covering selected areas of

the workpiece with a maskant (or etch resist) and imparting the
remaining exposed surfaces of the workpiece to the etchant.
 Chemical Machining

Figure. (a) Schematic illustration of the chemical machining process. Note that no forces or
machine tools are involved in this process.
(b) Stages in producing a profiled cavity by chemical machining; note the undercut.
 Steps in CHM
1. Cleaning
Cleaning operation is to ensure that material will be removed uniformly from the
surfaces to be etched. Contaminants on the surface of the workpiece are removed
to prepare for application of the maskant and permit uniform etching. This may
include degreasing, rinsing, and/or pickling. A good cleaning process produces a
good adhesion of the masking material. There are two cleaning methods;
mechanical and chemical methods. The most widely used cleaning process is
chemical method due to less damages occurred comparing to mechanical one.

2. Masking
A protective coating called a maskant is applied to certain portions of the part
surface. This maskant is made of a material that is chemically resistant to the
etchant. It is therefore applied to those portions of the work surface that are not to
be etched.
If selective etching is desired, an etch-resistant maskant is applied and selected
areas of the workpiece are exposed through the maskant in preparation for etching.
The selected masking material should be readily strippable mask, which is
chemically impregnable and adherent enough to stand chemical abrasion during
etching.
 Steps in CHM
3. Etching
This is the material removal step. The part is either immersed
in an etchant or an etchant is continuously sprayed onto the
surface of the workpiece. The chemical reaction is halted by
rinsing. This process is generally carried out in elevated
temperatures which are depended on the etched material.
Then the etched workpiece is rinsed to clean etchant from
machined surface.

4. Stripping/ demasking
The maskant is removed from the workpiece and the surface
is cleaned.
 Procedure for CHM
1. If the part to be machined has residual stresses from prior
processing, the stresses should first be relieved in order to
prevent warping after chemical milling.
2. The surfaces are thoroughly degreased and cleaned to
ensure good adhesion of the masking material and uniform
material removal. Scale from heat treatment should also be
removed.
3. The masking material is applied. Masking with tapes or paints
(maskants) is a common practice, although elastomers
(rubber and neoprene) and plastics (polyvinyl chloride,
polyethylene, and polystyrene) are also used. The maskant
material should not react with the chemical reagent.
4. The masking that covers various regions that require etching
is peeled off by the scribe-and-peel technique.
 Procedure for CHM
5. The exposed surfaces are etched with etchants such as sodium
hydroxide (for aluminum), solutions of hydrochloric and nitric
acids (for steels), or iron chloride (for stainless steels).
Temperature control and stirring during chemical milling is
important in order to obtain a uniform depth of material
removed.
6. After machining, the parts should be washed thoroughly to
prevent further reactions with any etchant residues.
7. The rest of the masking material is removed and the part is
cleaned and inspected.
8. Additional finishing operations may be performed on
chemically milled parts.
9. This sequence of operations can be repeated to produce
stepped cavities and various contours.
 Process Capabilities
• Chemical milling is used in the aerospace
industry to remove shallow layers of material
from large aircraft components, missile skin
panels, and extruded parts for airframes.
• Tank capacities for reagents are as large as 3.7
m X 15 m (12 ft X 50 ft).
• The process is also used to fabricate
microelectronic devices.
 Etchant
Etchants are the most influential factor in the chemical machining of any
material. Various etchant are available due to workpiece material.
 Etch Factor, E
The etch factor, E, in chemical machining is defined as:
Undercutting in Photo Chemical Machining.

E=d/U

Where;
d is the depth of cut,
U is the undercut

Along with the penetration into the workpiece, etching also occurs sideways
under the maskant
 Etch rate
1. Workpiece is etched for a duration necessary to produce the
required depth of etching.

E=d/t , (micron/min or mm/min)

depth of etch= d (micron or mm),
etching time= t (min)
rate of etching E (per side)

Example: If thickness of material is 3.0mm, etching time is 10 min and

thickness of material after simultaneously etching from both side is
2.5mm,

E= (3.0-2.5)/ (2x10)= 0.5/20 = 0.025mm/min

Effect of the etch factor in Chemical Machining from one side and both sides of a plate
 Advantages
1. Except for the preparation of the artwork and photo tool,
screen or scribing template, the process is relatively simple,
does not require highly skilled labor, induces no stress or
cold working in the metal, and can be applied to almost any
metal— aluminum, magnesium, titanium, and steel being
the most common.
2. Large areas can be machined; tanks for parts up to 12 by 50
ft and spray lines up to 10 ft wide are available.
3. Machining can be done on parts of virtually any shape.
4. Thin sections, such as honey comb, can be machined
because there are no mechanical forces involved.
5. Useful and economical for weight reduction.
6. Tolerances in chemical milling increase with the depth of
the cut and with faster etch rates and vary for different
materials .
7. The surface finish is generally good.
 Disadvantages
1. CHM requires the handling of dangerous chemicals and the
disposal of potentially harmful by products although some
recycling of chemicals may be possible.
2. The metal removal rate is slow in terms of the unit area
exposed.
3. However, because large areas can be exposed all at once, the
overall removal rate may compare favorably with other metal-
removal processes, particularly when the work material is not
machinable or the workpiece is thin and fragile, unable to
sustain large cutting forces.
 Design consideration for CHM
1. Because the etchant attacks all exposed surface continuously,
design involving sharp corner, deep and narrow cavities,
severe tapers, folded seams, or porous workpiece materials
should be avoided.
2. Because the etchant attacks the material in both vertical and
horizontal direction, undercuts may developed. Typically,
tolerances of ±10% of the material thickness can be
maintained in chemical blanking.
3. In order to improve the production rate, the bulk of the
workpiece should be shaped by other processes (such as by
machining) prior to chemical machining.
 Design consideration for CHM

4. Dimensional variations can occur because of size changes in

artwork due to humidity and temperature. This variation can
be minimized by properly selecting artwork media and by
controlling the environment in the artwork generation and
the production area in the plant.
5. Many product designs now are made with computer-aided
design (CAD) system. However, product drawings must be
translated into a protocol that is compatible with the
equipment for photochemical artwork generation.
 Question
Chemical milling is used to make rectangular pockets. The
starting thickness of the workpart is 20 mm. A series of
rectangular-shaped pockets 5 mm deep are to be formed with
dimensions 100 mm by 200 mm. The radius of each corner is 10
mm. The part is an aluminum alloy and the etchant is NaOH. The
penetration rate for this combination is 0.02 mm/min and the
etch factor is 1.5. Determine:
(a) metal removal rate in mm3/min,
(b) time required to machine to the specified depth, and
(c) required dimensions of the opening in the cut and peel
maskant to achieve the desired pocket size on the part.
 Solution
Given; thickness = 20 mm c. Desired pocket size is 100 x 200 mm with
Pockets = 100 mm x 200 mm x 5 mm
radius 5 mm.
Radius corner = 10 mm
Aluminum alloy
Etchant is NaOH Etch factor, E = d/U
Penetration rate = 0.02 mm/min Undercut = d/E
Etch factor = 1.5 U = 5 mm/1.5
U = 3.33 mm
Solution
Size maskant = Pocket size – (3.33 x 2)
a. Metal removal rate = Area x feed rate
MRR = (Area rectangular – πD2/4) x feed rate Therefore 100 – 6.66, 200 – 6.66
MRR = (100 mm x 200 mm – π202/4) x = 93.34 mm x 193.34 mm
0.02mm/min
MRR = (19685.80 mm2) x 0.02mm/min
radius=10 mm - 3.33 = 6.66 mm
MRR = 393.716 mm3

b. Time required = depth of cut / feed rate

t = 5 mm / 0.02 mm/min
t = 250 min
 Chemical machining processes
• Chemical milling
• Chemical blanking
• Chemical engraving

• Photochemical machining
 Chemical Milling

(a) Missile skin-panel section contoured by chemical milling to improve the

stiffness-to-weight ratio of the part.
(b) Weight reduction of space launch vehicles by chemical milling aluminum-
alloy plates. These panels are chemically milled after the plates have first
been formed into shape by processes such as roll forming or stretch forming.
The design of the chemically machined rib patterns can be modified readily at
minimal cost.
 Chemical Blanking

• Chemical blanking uses chemical erosion to cut very thin sheet metal part,
down to 0.025mm thick.
• Chemical blanking is similar to the blanking of sheet metal in that it is used
to produce features which penetrate through the thickness of the
material. Conventional punch-and-die methods do not work because the
stamping forces damage the sheet metal.
• Typical applications for chemical blanking are the burr-free etching of
printed-circuit boards, decorative panels, and thin sheet-metal stampings,
as well as the production of complex or small shapes.
 Chemical engraving

• Chemical machining process for making name plates and

other flat panels that have lettering and/or artwork on one
side.
• The sequence in chemical engraving is similar to other CHM
processes, except that a filling operation follows etching. The
purpose of filling is to apply paint or other coating into the
recessed area that have been created by etching. Then the
panel is immersed in a solution that dissolved the resist but
does not attack the coating material. Thus, when the resist is
removed, the coating remains in the etched areas but not in
the areas that were masked. The effect is to highlight the
pattern.
 Photo Chemical machining (PCM)
1. The use of photoresists in CHM, called photochemical machining (PCM). The
most common and most precise method for creating maskants involves the
use of UV light-sensitive emulsions, called photoresists.

2. In this method, photoresists are applied to the surface of the workpiece and
selectively exposed to an intense ray of UV light through a photographic
negative of the image to be patterned.

3. PCM has been widely used for the production of small, complex parts such
as printed circuit boards and very thin parts that are too small or too thin to be
blanked or milled by ordinary sheet metal forming or machining operations,
respectively .Refinements to the PCM process are used in the
microelectronics industry to etch metal and dielectric thin films.

4. The photochemical term can be applied correctly to chemical blanking and

chemical engraving when these methods use the photographic resist method.
 Photochemical Blanking

• Photochemical blanking, also called photoetching, is

a modification of chemical milling.
• Material is removed, usually from flat thin sheet, by
photographic techniques.
• Complex burr- free shapes can be blanked on metals
as thin as 0.0025 mm (0.0001 in.).
• Sometimes called photochemical machining, the
process is also used for etching.
 Procedure in photochemical blanking
1. The design of the part to be blanked is prepared. A photographic
negative is then made and reduced to the size of the finished part.
The reduced negative of the design is called artwork. The original
(enlarged) drawing allows inherent design errors to be reduced by
the amount of reduction (such as 100X) for the final artwork image.
2. The sheet blank is coated with a photosensitive material
(photoresist) by dipping, spraying, or roller coating, and dried in an
oven. This coating is often called the emulsion.
3. The negative (stencil) is placed over the coated blank and exposed
to ultraviolet light, which hardens the exposed areas.
4. The blank is developed, which dissolves the unexposed areas.
5. The blank is then immersed into a bath of reagent (as in chemical
milling), or sprayed with the reagent, which etches away the
exposed areas.
6. The masking material is removed, and the part is washed thoroughly
to remove all chemical residues.
 Procedure in photochemical blanking
1. Clean raw part
2. Apply resist (maskant) by dipping, spraying or painting
3. Place negative on resist
4. Expose to ultraviolet light
5. Develop to remove resist from areas to be etched
6. Etch partially until completed both side
7. Remove resist and clean to yield finished part.
Types of Photoresist
 Design consideration for PCM
Etching allowance- the artwork dimensions are made to match those of
the component plus or minus the etching allowance due to undercut (side
etching).

Three types of dimensions:

1. Dimensions that decrease with etching time. Example outside dimension,
distance between an edge and a hole centre.
2. Dimensions that increase with etching time. Example: hole diameter,
width of slot.
3. Dimensions that remain constant with etching time. Example: angle,
distance between centres.

Etch band-A line with uniform width drawn on the artwork and hence
reproduced on stencil.
 Design consideration (cont.)

Reasons for using etch band:

-To obtain uniform profiles on all edges. Rate of etching
is dependent on stencil line width.
-To conserve etchant.
 Design consideration (cont.)
The width of the etch band on the band mask should be equal to
the width of the smallest aperture on the mask or approximately
0.8mm if the smallest aperture is wider than 1 mm.
Etching tabs-triangle bridges across and along the outside etch
band with apex towards the component. This apex should be
etched almost to a part (0.1mm) after processing.
Function of tabs:
1. To prevent components separating from the main sheet and
lost in the etchant.
2. To prevent components becoming entangled.
 Comparison between PCM and CHM

1. CHM involves bulk material removal, in engineering

application involves structural components
2. PCM involves low depths of cut on flat sheet materials.
3. CHM employs a hard-metal template and hand scribing.
4. PCM combines chemical etching with micro-photography
and photosensitive maskants.
 PCM Capabilities
1. Typical applications for photochemical blanking are fine
screens, printed-circuit cards, electric-motor laminations, flat
springs, and masks for color television. Although skilled
labor is required, tooling costs are low; the process can be
automated; and it is economical for medium- to high-
production volume.
2. Photochemical blanking is capable of making very small
parts where traditional blanking dies are difficult to produce.
The process is also effective for blanking fragile workpieces
and materials.
3. The handling of chemical reagents requires precautions and
special safety considerations to protect the workers against
exposure to both liquid chemicals and volatile chemicals.
4. Furthermore, the disposal of chemical by-products from this
process is a major drawback, although some by-products can
be recycled.
 Lecture highlights
• General steps of chemical machining.
• Terms: etching, etchant, etch rate etc
• Illustration and step sequences of processing
in chemical machining and photochemical
machining.
• Design consideration of PCM