Overview

Custom spacer etching builds a spacer from the drawing, not from a die. The outline, the relief slots, the locating ears and any stepped pocket are transferred to photoresist as artwork and etched out of sheet metal, so a first-off part can be delivered without a tooling order and a design change costs a new film rather than a die modification. Sheet thickness sets the stand-off height, and a second masked etch can halve a local area to create a shoulder the assembly locates against.

That combination is what separates custom spacer etching from stamping and machining. A punched spacer needs a die per outline and cannot easily carry a pocket; a machined spacer can hold a pocket but becomes expensive and slow once the part is thin and the quantity climbs. Etching sits between them: it produces flat, burr-free parts from 0.05 mm to 1.0 mm with no clamp marks, holds profile to ±0.05 mm, and lets one sheet carry several part numbers so a mixed order runs as a single pass.

Parameter Window

• Available Materials: stainless steel 304/316L, brass H62, copper C1100, aluminum 5052, nickel
• Material Thickness Range: 0.05–1.0 mm
• Tolerance: ±0.05 mm on profile, ±0.02 mm on thickness, ±0.01 mm on etched step depth
• Minimum Feature: 0.1 mm slot, 0.2 mm hole on 0.3 mm stock, 0.15 mm web between cut features
• Surface Options: as-etched, passivated, deburred and tumbled, nickel or tin plated, anodized (aluminum), laser-marked part number
• Compliance: ISO 9001 process control, RoHS/REACH material traceability

Manufacturing Process / Workflow (8 Steps)

1. Drawing Review — Read the drawing against etch rules, flag features below the process minimum and propose relief radii where a sharp corner would etch unevenly.
2. Material and Gauge Choice — Set alloy and thickness from the required stand-off, corrosion exposure and whether the part will be plated.
3. Panel Layout — Nest several part numbers on one sheet with shared registration marks so mixed orders share one setup and one etch cycle.
4. Cleaning and Lamination — Degrease the sheet and laminate dry film on both faces, keeping the resist thin enough for 0.1 mm slots.
5. First Exposure and Development — Print the pocket and step pattern, develop, and confirm the masked boundary before any metal is removed.
6. Step Etch — Half-etch the pocket to depth, then strip the resist so the shoulder is formed without touching the through outline.
7. Second Mask and Through Etch — Re-laminate, expose the outline, develop and etch through, so the profile and the pocket are generated in two controlled stages.
8. Strip, Inspect, Pack — Remove resist, neutralize, check profile, step depth, flatness and burr, then pack by part number with a first-article report.

Core Advantages

1. No tooling charge on a new outline: The first article and the ten-thousandth share the same artwork, so prototype cost is material plus process time only.
2. Steps and pockets without machining: A masked half-etch produces a shoulder, a recess or a relief pocket in the same part, with depth held to ±0.01 mm.
3. Flat, clamp-mark-free faces: Chemical removal leaves no vice jaw print, no cutter sweep and no stress bow, which matters when the spacer sits against a precision surface.
4. Revision-friendly: Widening a slot or moving a mounting ear is a film edit, so a running change does not restart the tooling clock.
5. Burr-free edges: No blanking shear means no burr to interfere with seating or to shed particles inside a sealed assembly.
6. Mixed-material orders: Stainless, brass, copper and aluminum run on the same line, so one purchase order can cover several spacer families without separate setups.

Typical Applications

• Bearing and shaft spacing: Stepped spacers that set axial clearance while clearing a shoulder on the shaft.
• PCB stand-offs: Flat brass spacers that set board height above a chassis without a threaded insert.
• Optical and laser modules: Thin spacers with relief slots that set element spacing and clear the mount screws.
• Valve and pump shimming: Corrosion-resistant 316L spacers that set spring preload in a wet environment.
• Display and housing assembly: Aluminum spacers that establish gap uniformity between a panel and its frame.
• Test fixture shims: Quick-turn custom spacers for fixtures that are revised between build phases.

Design Notes & Process Considerations

1. Give the drawing a datum: Define one edge or two holes as the datum and dimension from there; etched parts are accurate relative to artwork, not to a random corner.
2. Respect the minimum web: Keep 0.15 mm of metal between cut features at 0.2 mm thickness and scale up as the sheet gets thicker, or the web will etch through.
3. Step depth tolerance: Half-etch depth is controlled by time and chemistry, so call out a range such as 0.1 ±0.01 mm rather than a single number with no window.
4. Two-sided steps: A pocket etched from one face only will bow slightly on thin stock; if flatness is critical, specify a matching pocket on the reverse.
5. Sharp corners: Internal corners etch into a radius of roughly the material thickness. Design 0.2 mm radius or larger instead of a true sharp corner.
6. Quantity and nesting: Etching cost is driven by sheet area, not by part count, so fill the panel. Custom spacer etching gets cheaper per piece as more identical or companion parts share the sheet.