You are here: Home > News & Events > Latest News
High-precision burr and stress-free washers, shims and gaskets for prototype or mass-production needs
Versatile manufacturing facilities at specialist precision manufacturer, Tecan can be used to produce a wide range of flat metal products such as shims, washers, gaskets and spacers for the most demanding applications – from precision engineering to aerospace and medical needs.
Versatile manufacturing facilities at specialist precision manufacturer, Tecan can be used to produce a wide range of flat metal products such as shims, washers, gaskets and spacers for the most demanding applications – from precision engineering to aerospace and medical needs.
The burr and stress-free products are produced by using photolithography to pattern the substrate. This enables the cost-effective manufacture of, for example, large flat parts with fine features, or multiples of much smaller parts. One example being the production of up to 40,000 2mm diameter washers on a single sheet, each with a tolerance down to +/- two microns.
Tecan uses two highly-specialised processes to produce parts. For the most accurate and fine-featured applications and the mass-production of micro-shims, it uses Photo Electro-Forming (PEF) - where the parts are grown electro-chemically into a photolithographically-defined resist mould. For low-cost tooling and rapid prototyping of burr and stress-free parts in a wide range of metals up to 1.5mm thick it uses Photo Chemical Machining (PCM) – where the parts are produced by selectively removing metal by chemical etching through a photolithographically defined resist layer,.
Whatever the application, Tecan can produce customised metal shims, washers, gaskets and spacers in a single manufacturing process and with many identical or different items produced simultaneously on the same sheet. The PEF and PCM processes offer a number of benefits over traditional manufacturing options such as stamping or laser cutting. The parts are stress free, have no burrs and exhibit uniform flatness, assuring right-first-time manufacture with no need for secondary processing.
The company’s specialist team of experienced engineers works in close partnership with the customer to select the appropriate process to develop cost-efficient parts . The team can share extensive process, materials and finishing knowledge, and thrives on early involvement in the planning stages to help ensure that any concept or design is efficiently optimised for production and end-use performance.
The burr and stress-free products are produced by using photolithography to pattern the substrate. This enables the cost-effective manufacture of, for example, large flat parts with fine features, or multiples of much smaller parts. One example being the production of up to 40,000 2mm diameter washers on a single sheet, each with a tolerance down to +/- two microns.
Tecan uses two highly-specialised processes to produce parts. For the most accurate and fine-featured applications and the mass-production of micro-shims, it uses Photo Electro-Forming (PEF) - where the parts are grown electro-chemically into a photolithographically-defined resist mould. For low-cost tooling and rapid prototyping of burr and stress-free parts in a wide range of metals up to 1.5mm thick it uses Photo Chemical Machining (PCM) – where the parts are produced by selectively removing metal by chemical etching through a photolithographically defined resist layer,.
Whatever the application, Tecan can produce customised metal shims, washers, gaskets and spacers in a single manufacturing process and with many identical or different items produced simultaneously on the same sheet. The PEF and PCM processes offer a number of benefits over traditional manufacturing options such as stamping or laser cutting. The parts are stress free, have no burrs and exhibit uniform flatness, assuring right-first-time manufacture with no need for secondary processing.
The company’s specialist team of experienced engineers works in close partnership with the customer to select the appropriate process to develop cost-efficient parts . The team can share extensive process, materials and finishing knowledge, and thrives on early involvement in the planning stages to help ensure that any concept or design is efficiently optimised for production and end-use performance.
Return to Article List or for media enquires please click here
