E-FAB Photo Chemical Machining, Milling, Photo-Etching News

E-FAB is a photo etch and photo chemical machining manufacturer of microstrip antennas on various substrates such as Duroid laminates, polyimide, Kapton, Teflon, and ceramics.

FR4 epoxy fiberglass laminates have also been used but the Duroid laminates, polyimides, Teflons, and ceramic substrates typically have better electrical impedance, thermal, chemical, and mechanical properties than FR4 laminates. Antennas have been designed and built on substrate thicknesses from 5 thousandths to 60 thousandths (.127 MM to 1.52 MM) typically, with some antenna designers requesting thicknesses up to .250 inches (6.35 millimeters). These substrates are copper clad, single or double sided, with 1/4 oz., 1/2 oz., 1 oz., and 2 oz. copper typical. Double-sided substrates are typically used for microstrip antenna ground planes.

Once the photo etch process is completed, the etched antenna elements can then be electro plated with various metals or alloys such as tin nickel or gold plating. The plating process depends on the customer's applications and antenna design requirements.

Flex Film Antennas

Flex-film polyimides, Kapton, and other polyimide flex substrates have also been used for a variety of photo etched antennas. E-FAB has built antennas using flex-films with thickness as thin as .001 inches (25 microns).

Photo Etch vs. Printed Circuit Board Etching

The advantage of using E-FAB's photo etch process compared to PCB manufacturers, is E-FAB can hold tighter tolerances than Printed Circuit Board shops. With E-FAB's photo etch solution, we can etch a wide variety of metals and alloys. Circuit board shops are typically limited to the types of metals and substrates they will work with because of the PCB shops limited chemical etching solutions.

Antenna Fabrication Experience With E-FAB

Experience is another factor to consider when having reliable antennas manufactured. Most circuit board manufacturers have experience with FR4 but have very little if any experience at all when dealing with microstrip etched antennas. E-FAB has been building antennas since 1981 and is a preferred supplier. E-FAB has built antennas for JPL, NASA, the military, and private sector companies and has antenna manufacturing experience with: cones, horns, helix, spirals, microstrips, patch, hybrid etched antenna arrays, phase array, fractals, micro, blade, miniature parabolics, rigid and flexible antennas.

Contact E-FAB for customer services, engineering assistance, or an antenna sales quote for your precision antennas today.

Labels: Antennas, PhotoEtching

Posted by E-FAB Photo-Etching, Photochemical Machining and Flex Circuits at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

Machine Shops and You Should Be Interested In Photo Chemical Milling, Photochemical Machining, and Photo Etching Outside Services. How can E-FAB PCM save you and your customers time and money?

Learn why you should use photo chemical machining, milling, and photo etching. The bottom line is E-FAB PhotoChemical Machining can save a machine shop and their customers time and money in a multitude of ways. Many times OEM customers have no idea about what processes are involved in the manufacturing or fabrication of metal parts, or the differences between electrochemical, photochemical, and CNC machining. They only know that they want quality parts machined to specifications, with on time delivery, and at the agreed upon pricing. They don't care how a machine shop does it, or the tooling involved, or even the degree of difficulty in the machining process because of the complexity of the metal parts designs. No — none of that really matters to the OEM customer. They just want to know; can you do it?

Let's say you are a full service machine shop with CNC turning (lathes), CNC milling machines, CNC laser cutting equipment, CNC waterjet cutting, and wire EDM (electrical discharge machining). Customers come to your place because you can do it all, right? Yes, you can do it all, but some of those parts are going to cost you more in time and labor by machining them in a traditional manner rather than what could be done using E-FAB Photo Chemical Milling and Machining Services.

Photo chemical milling, (PCM) photochemical machining, and photo etching are ideally suited for most metals and alloys that are less than .050" in material thickness depending on which particular chemical process and part tolerances or metal types that are being chemically milled, machined, or etched. Read about the photo chemical machining applications.

Metal And Alloys Suited For Photo Chemical Machining

The machining of thin metal parts made of copper, beryllium copper, brass, bronze, tin, nickel, nickel silver, molybdenum, steel, stainless steel, spring steels, aluminum, magnetic alloys, and other common and exotic materials are all ideally suited to be fabricated using the photo chemical machining process.

What Are The Photo Chemical Machining, Milling, And Photo Etching Benefits Vs. CNC Milling/Machining?

E-FAB PCM is an excellent alternative to traditional CNC Machining. Thousands or millions of high precision parts can be manufactured at one time with substantially reduced tooling costs. Metal parts that are intricate in nature, with complex shapes and geometries, can easily be tooled up on a computer using CAD/CAM software and outputting photo-tooling which minimizes expensive CNC mechanical and manual operations costs.

Finished metal parts can be delivered quickly. Parts requiring tighter tolerances can be easily stepped and repeated on larger panel sizes with very high parts to panel density ratios. This substantially increases the yield ratio and decreases the material waste.

Engineering modifications can be done quickly and conveniently using CAD/CAM software. E-FAB PCM allows the designer and engineer to minimize costs and significantly reduce the turn around time involved with prototypes.

The E-FAB PCM process maintains surface quality without producing surface burring or tool marks as compared to CNC machining. Metal properties and structure integrity are maintained with the PCM process.

Parts can be formed into complex shapes. Etched bend lines can be included into the part design so as to provide excellent metal facets for forming, shaping, and bending the parts into the final fabricated part design.

Traditionally, CNC machining and CNC milling has difficulty machining thin metal parts. With E-FAB PCM Services and Engineering Support, a machine shop can solve the complex thin metal parts challenges using the PCM solution, at a fraction of a machine shop's manufacturing cost.

E-FAB also provides engineering, manufacturing, and technical support services for all types of applications in military, defense, and in private sectors.

Contact E-FAB for a quote on your thin metal parts jobs.

Labels: CNC_Machining, CNC_Milling, Machine_Shops

Posted by E-FAB at 2:01 AM | Permalink | Comments

An Ideal Application For Photo Chemical Machining, PCM, Is In The Microwave Industry




Engineering design software and resources can be found at www.engineers.com

E-FAB can help you with the manufacturing processes used in Septum Filter Inserts, E-Plane, E Planes, and Waveguide Filters. E-FAB has the PCM experience in etching various microwave and antenna components. Call or write E-FAB today for price quote and/or manufacturing engineering support for your precision parts.

Labels: Antennas, Microwave, PhotoChemicalMachining, PhotoEtching

Posted by E-FAB at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments