Sign and Nameplate

Chemical Etchers for Engraved Name Plates and Metal Signs

Engraved Name Plates

What kind of Signs and Name Plates are made in a Chemcut machine?

Any sign or name plate that requires etching metal or glass can be made in our etcher. We have built many different metal etchers that are designed to engrave name plates and metal signs.

Engraved name plates are typically made from metal which makes using a chemical etcher cost-effective. We have built etchers for stainless steel, titanium, brass, aluminum name plates, and other metals. If you want a list of metals we can build a name plate engraving machine for, proceed to our Chemical Milling page.

Etching titanium has become a popular manufacturing process. We specialize in building hydrofluoric acid (HF) etchers which is required when etching titanium.

In 2020 we built the largest titanium etcher in the world which consisted of 11 hydrofluoric acid etch chambers.


What is a name plate?

A name plate is a plate, sign, or plaque that expresses the name of an individual, company, resident, or whoever needs a metal sign to show their name.

Sign and Name plates can be made of plastic, wood, metal, or glass. As stated above, we build name plate engraving machines for metal and glass.


How are name plates made?

The chemical etching process to make a name plate is similar to chemical milling. A piece of metal with an image on it is placed on a conveyorized etcher. The conveyor takes the metal through the metal etching machine for a preset time. The metal is then rinsed and stripped which will provide you with an engraved name plate.

The sign and name plate etching process starts with selecting metal and the proper chemistry for etching the selected metal.

Secondly, a photoresist for that metal needs to be selected so photo etching can be completed. The photoresist will be laminated onto the metal, exposed to UV light, and chemically developed. For an in-depth description of this process please click here.

Now the chemical engraving step. If you are etching stainless steel, ferric chloride will be the chemistry used to etch stainless steel. Name plates typically just etch part way through the metal, which will produce engraved letters or raised letters.

To produce engraved letters the manufacturer will leave the metal exposed where letters are to be engraved. The etchant will react with the surface causing the exposed metal to be etched away leaving letters engraved into the metal.

For producing raised letters, a manufacturer will leave the area around the letters exposed to the etchant. The etchant will react with the surface to etch away the area around the letters leaving raised letters.

The photoresist is then stripped off using chemistry, rinsed with water, and dried. The metal sign now has the design desired and is ready for the next steps in your process.

The above steps are the same for sign etching or sign engraving.


What products are made on our Chemical Etching Machines?

Accessibility Signage

ADA compliant Signs

Architectural Signage

Business Cards

Company Name Plates

Desk Name Plates

Door Name Plates

Metal Plates

Plaque Engraving

Wall Signs

And much more!

etching pcb and chemical milling

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