If you are still photo etching precision metal parts in house for your own account (not as a job shop), we should talk.

Imagine your life (and business) without all that etching hassle.  Look at what you would save in utilities, water, waste disposal, chemistry and supplies, maintenance and repair, regulatory compliance, and ask yourself why you’re still doing this if it’s not the business you are really in.

We are in the etching business all day, every day– it’s the only business we’re in.

We know what it takes to run a safe, efficient, clean and cost-effective etching facility.  We invest continuously in maintaining and upgrading our equipment and facilities.  We have process controls and automated regeneration to insure consistent quality.  We have state of the art waste treatment and handling that complies with the most demanding standards in the industry.

We know that we can meet your quality and service expectations.  And, I think you’ll find that letting us do it for you is a compelling value proposition as well.  So, call me.  Let’s talk.

In an effort to further engage our website visitors, we installed live chat software as a hosted application.  We typically get 60-90 visitors  per day. In six months, we have had two chat requests.  And, I learned early on that sending a chat invite to a visitor absolutely scares them away.  But, the real value of the software is in being able to see what your visitors are looking for in real time.

If you are using Google Adwords, you can see the exact search phrases  that are being clicked.  Unless you are much more sophisticated than I was about the generosity of Google’s “broad matching” parameters, you might be shocked at how many of your clicks are wasted.  As a result of this somewhat costly education, we tuned up the negative keywords list significantly and changed most of the keywords to a “must contain” match.  The net result has been that we’re getting the same amount of traffic, but it’s much more relevant.

We can also see where our visitors are from geographically, and in many cases, we can identify the organization.  I’ve had a number of cases of seeing a visitor from a company where I know some one.  And, I’ve sent emails that say “we had a web visitor from your shop.  If some one is looking for etching, we hope you’ll keep us in mind.”

Being able to see the daily traffic live also gives you a sense of what the hot search topics are.  We use it to expand site content, modify the keyword list and suggest topics for newsletters  (and the blog.)

And, sometimes, people want to chat.

Photo chemical etching, chemical milling and electro chemical etching are cousins.  In all cases, an etchant is used to remove metal.  But, the intent of each process is different.

Photo etching is a fabrication process that yields either finished parts or flat blanks that require additional steps to complete.   Photo etching is not a special process as defined by NADCAP.  Photo etching does not in any way alter the physical,  mechanical or chemical properties of the alloys we process.

Chemical milling is used to selectively remove metal either from a prefabricated part or to re-gauge a sheet of metal.  It is most often used for aerospace components, such as engine nacelles and some airframe structures, to remove non-structural metal in order to reduce the weight of the part.  Chemical milling to reduce the thickness of metal sheets is an alternative to grinding.  Chemical milling, depending on the application, may be subject to the NADCAP 7108/2 checklist.

Electro chemical etching is a process for marking parts with part numbers, serial numbers, logos, CAGE codes, lot codes and the like.   Electro chemical etching can be applied to many alloys and to curved surfaces.  Although specifications for electro chemical etching still appear on many legacy drawings,  laser marking has become a popular alternative.

Links to providers of chemical milling, electrochemical etching and part marking can be found here.

A concise list of NADCAP special processes can be found at this link.