Tool Steel Selection Guidelines for High Volume Injection Moulding Tooling Baseline Fabrication
High-volume injection moulding baseline tooling demands martensitic stainless or pre-hardened steels matched to polymer abrasiveness and cycle volume.
Photochemical Etching
Meaning
Subtractive manufacturing technique uses light-sensitive photoresists and chemical etchants to remove material from metal foils or plates. This process produces high-precision parts and surface textures for injection mould cavities without creating mechanical stress or burrs.
Chemical Removal
Acidic solutions dissolve the unprotected areas of the metal surface to create the desired pattern or geometry. When using photochemical etching, the depth of the cut is controlled by the immersion time and the temperature of the chemical bath.
Tolerance Control
Precision depends on the quality of the optical mask and the uniformity of the resist coating. Designers select photochemical etching when complex grain patterns are needed on a mould surface that would be impossible to achieve with traditional CNC milling.
Surface Quality
Finished components retain the original properties of the alloy because the process does not involve heat or physical impact. In the production of decorative plastic parts, photochemical etching allows for the creation of leather-like or geometric textures on the tool steel. The lack of tool wear means the first part produced is identical to the last part in a large production run.
This repeatability makes it a standard choice for high-volume automotive and consumer electronics components.