Page 53 - PCMI Journal July 2018

David Allen | Emeritus Professor | Cranfield University | UK Photochemical Machining of Aerospace Materials
5/31/18
Additional safety features in etching machines intended for use with HF
• In essence, the Chemcut machines are fairly standard designs with some additional interlocked covers for added safety.
• Some other corrosion-resistant special materials are also used. Chemcut has found that in HF, or HF containing some HCl, that carbon-graphite composite holds up very well in the etchant bath.
Machining titanium - Summary
• The mass use of titanium as a material of choice in product design has been held back due to its inherent cost and the difficulty in manufacturing via traditional machining.
• With the right experience, H&S and process control, PCM offers a cost-effective and efficient route to the production of titanium parts.
• The effective etching of titanium can offer some distinct advantages over conventional machining, notably stress- free, feature-dense components previously not possible, challenging or uneconomical to machine by conventional means.
Issue 131 July 2018 PCMI Journal 52
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