We want to express our condolences to the family of Conard’s founder, Richard C. Huttinger, who recently passed.

Dick developed the process for etching aluminum that is still a mainstay of the company’s capabilities forty-five years later.  The Conard process yields industry-leading results in etching aluminum…to the point that other etchers will come to us for it.

We offer prayers and sympathy to Dick’s family.

Labor is a significant factor in the cost of photo etched metal parts.  And, the “sheet” is the unit of labor.  The amount of labor per sheet is nearly the same whether the sheet is 6″ x 6″ or 18″ x 24″.

The goal, therefore, is to make the sheet as large as possible and put as many parts as possible on the sheet.

Dimensional tolerances are a major determinant of the sheet size we can use.  At a minimum, dimensional tolerances should be at least 15% of the metal thickness.

However, designing with tolerances that are close to the limits of the  process adds to cost.  Here’s an example: assume a 1.000-inch disk in .010 stainless.

The typical tolerance for a three-place decimal is +/-.005″, which is about the thickness of a sheet of paper.  On .010 material, in photo etching, the achievable tolerance would be +/-.0015″.

So, just because the process allows tighter tolerances …don’t jump there.  Here’s why:

At +/-.005″, we can make about 400 pieces of our 1-inch disk per sheet.  At +/-.0015″, we make only about 100 pieces per sheet (due to smaller sheets and more of them) . Excluding material cost, producing to +/-.0015″ costs nearly 60% more per part than to the standard tolerance.

To help us help you, please be as generous with dimensional tolerances as your application can accommodate.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.