Curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing 1989-2025
-----
Using ferric chloride in etching copper dies
2005
I work at a printing company in GA. I use ferric chloride
⇦ this on
eBay or
Amazon [affil links] to etch copper dies in a spray tank. Well I came into work one morning and my tank had "sludged over" I call it.It was a fresh tank, with fresh chemicals in it. The ferric chloride
⇦ this on
eBay or
Amazon [affil links] had turned from a normal black looking color to a green color and had some sort of film in it.Well I Want to know why it did that.
The chemicals that I use are 13-A and 13-B. The copper content was around .3 on the spectrometer.
PLEASE HELP
PRINT SHOP EMPLOYEE - ATLANTA, Georgia, USA
It sounds as if you have reduced the ferric chloride ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] to ferrous chloride, hence the green colour. I would think this has been achieved by something, such as a lump of copper or other metal, being dropped into the ferric chloride ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] tank, where it has been oxidised by the ferric solution to give a soluble salt of the metal. Run an ICP to see what other metals are in the solution.
Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2005
June 13, 2008
respected sir,
I want to etch the surface of copper rod. I started to etch. But I don't know about the effect of concentration of ferric chloride
⇦ this on
eBay or
Amazon [affil links] . Now I am using high concentration. Is high concentration decrease the etching speed?
please check the above question and give me your valuable advice.
engineer - Calicut, Kerala, India
Q, A, or Comment on THIS thread -or- Start a NEW Thread