Custom Etch, Inc.

Success Story:
Custom Etch, Inc.
EDM I Milling I Laser Texturing I Tooling & Automation I Customer Service

Shop Has Every Surface Covered With Added
5-Axis Lasers
With the emergence of 5-axis laser texturing, it was thought
that the innovative technology would significantly reduce the
use of, if not completely replace, the traditional process of
photo-printed acid etching. But at Custom Etch, that prediction
could not be further from the truth.
Custom Etch Inc. in New Castle, Pa., is a 30-person shop
that specializes in photo-printed acid etching, and has done
so since its establishment in 1982 by Henry Melonio and his
brother Donald Melonio. However, the shop recently invested
in 5-axis laser-texturing technology, and instead of replacing
the shop’s legacy processes, two laser systems have proven
a perfect partner to Custom Etch’s chemical etching and engraving
operations.
As a result of marrying together the chemical and laser
processes within its operations, Custom Etch can precisely
and efficiently generate virtually any desired surface pattern
or texture faster than those shops relying solely on chemical
processes. Additionally, laser texturing significantly boosts
Custom Etch’s flexibility when it comes to imparting complex
organic textures and geometric patterns onto complicated
mold cavities, cores, mandrels, embossing rolls and profile
embossing wheels. The shop’s textures and patterns can be
found on everything from housewares, building products and
automotive parts to lawn and garden equipment, toys, medical
components and more.
“When coupled with our experience, efficiency and excellent
customer service, 5-axis laser-texturing technology enables
us to further help our customers discover and explore unique
design opportunities,” said Don Melonio, vice president of
Custom Etch. “The technology propels forward the development,
prototyping and manufacturing of our customers’ products.
It also provides levels of accuracy, detail, and repeatability
– especially helpful with mold repair areas – that are
unachievable using conventional etching processes.”
Custom Etch’s laser systems are GF AgieCharmilles LASER
1000 5Ax and LASER 1200 5Ax 5-axis laser-texturing machines
that provide fully digitized manufacturing processes for
generating detailed and nuanced texturing, microstructuring,
engraving, marking and labeling. The technology is faster,
quieter as well as more repeatable, flexible and environmentally
friendly when compared with conventional processes,
both mechanical and chemical.
Both LASER 5Ax systems machine from high-quality digital
images and CAD data, allowing for completely reproducible
results in both large and small job lot sizes. The mapping
systems of the machines use a 50-W Ytterbium pulsed laser
to render the desired patterns or textures. And while chemical
etching, for instance, can only produce in three to five layers,
GF AgieCharmilles’ laser-texturing technology can achieve 30
to 50 layers to provide much higher levels of detail.
The machines also come standard with programmable, tilting
laser heads, high-resolution cameras with integrated illumination
for fine positioning, integrated touch probes, dust
exhausts, central lubrication systems and lenses of varying
focal strengths. In addition to being a faster and more precise
means of producing patterns and textures with increased reliability,
laser texturing offers pollutant-free operation, producing
no fluids, slurry or chips. Dust particles produced by the

process are automatically extracted by vacuum to guarantee a
clean process.
“The LASER machines are basically 5-axis milling machines
with lasers instead of milling heads,” explained Melonio.
“However, GF AgieCharmilles created a completely new proprietary
software to run the laser heads from common IGES
and STEP files. Programming is easy and basically requires
only the same programming skills as would be needed to
machine a simple component on a conventional CNC machine
tool.”
Rhino is Custom Etch’s preferred mapping/imaging software
used to create surface designs and transfer them on to mold
cavity surfaces for laser texturing. These same files are the
ones used by the machinist that cut the tool cavity shape on
milling machines.
According to Melonio, the key to the laser-texturing operation
is positioning the laser’s focal point at the correct distance
from the workpiece surface. Material ablation rate is based
on the frequency and power setting of the laser. Power settings
can be adjusted anywhere from 0 to 100 percent, and the
frequency from a level of ten to 90, for instance, to determine
how fast the laser will ablate/cut material.
Because they use fiber lasers, the systems are extremely precise
and can remove microns at a time. This allows Custom
Etch to make very light and shallow cuts or not make a cut
at all, but instead use the lasers to only change the color of a
part’s surface for strictly aesthetics if so desired.
With its most recently acquired LASER 1200 5Ax, Custom Etch
increases the range of part sizes to which it can apply surface
texturing. The machine’s table measures 31.5” in diameter and
handles workpieces weighing up to 3,747 lbs.
Custom Etch’s LASER 1000 5Ax is fully automated with an integrated
GF AgieCharmilles pallet changing system that accommodates
six modular pallets from System 3R. And according
to Melonio, automation is the one factor that definitely makes
the technology economical for the shop and completely justifies
the investment.
The pallet system uses six 11.02” square pallets that each
hold workpiece fixtures an outside shop developed for Custom
Etch. As opposed to vises, the adjustable fixtures allow Custom
Etch to effortlessly load and unload workpieces.
In operation, the laser machine runs an automatic probe
cycle, and the part program is such that every part locates in
the same place on the pallet thanks to the custom fixtures.
Removing parts is as simple as loosening a couple of screws,
sliding the finished part out and placing a new one into the
fixture.
“For our type of work, it would be tough to make money with
the laser machine if it didn’t have the pallet system. Without
such automation, parts would have to be manually loaded one
at time into the machine, which would add huge labor costs
and time to the process,” explained Melonio. “Plus, once pallets
are loaded, the system basically runs unattended.”
To illustrate the value of the pallet system, Melonio cites having
to produce 40 soft drink plastic bottle molds – a job that
entailed texturing 80 mold halves (cores and cavities) and 40
base pushups. For this particular job, the shop had to process
all 80 halves and all 40 base pushups through the GF
AgieCharmilles 5-axis laser-texturing machine in a matter of
three days to make the required delivery time. And according
to Melonio, the only way the shop accomplished the task was
being able to have only one person load and unload pallets
while the machine continued to work non-stop and unattended.
Typical part sizes run on the LASER 1000 5Ax machine measure
up to 8.5” x 10.63”, so the shop uses every workable
inch of its pallets. About 200 molds per week are processed
through the laser machine, and the system has increased
the shop’s throughput month after month without the need to
dramatically increase shop floor size or workforce.
However, it should be noted that Custom Etch uses its laser
machines to impart complete surface textures only some of
the time. Instead, explained Melonio, the lasers will most
often be used first on a part, followed by the acid etching
process. The reason, he said, is that imparting an 0.008”-deep
pattern in a soft drink bottle mold, for instance, would take
about 1.5 hours per one mold half using only laser texturing.
Such a processing time is reasonable for one or two parts, but
consider if the job required 60 molds with a total of 120 halves.
For its dual texturing technology processing, Custom Etch will
apply an acid resistant paint on to the mold cavity surfaces. It
then laser textures the desired pattern on to the parts, but in
such a way as to only remove the paint, not actual part material.
The operation takes only minutes as opposed to hours and
basically serves the same purpose as the wax transfer does in
traditional chemical etching.
With traditional chemical etching, a film negative of a design
is etched into a magnesium plate. A wax substance is then
burnished into the plate and the excess removed, leaving only
the wax in the design etching. Pottery tissue is burnished on
to the plate, and when the tissue is lifted off, the design comes
with it, so to speak. This 2D wax rendering of the texture
design can then be wrapped around a 3D surface, such as the
cavity of a mold.

The process is very time consuming and requires the experience
of a skilled craftsman. Reason being that when the
2D pottery tissue is wrapped onto a 3D surface, the paper
wrinkles anywhere there are corners or changes in surface
directions. These are the places that require artistic talent for
manually slicing and patching the tissue to maintain the pattern
appearance.
After the tissue is applied, it is sprayed with a liquid solution
that releases it to leave behind the wax pattern on the part
surface. This wax design left on the part is what is known
as the acid resist. And when the part is submerged in acid,
the places where the wax is will not be etched away, but the
desired pattern will.
Custom Etch’s business has grown about 40 percent over the
past two years, and half of that can be attributed to the GF
AgieCharmilles 5-axis laser-texturing machines – the highend
capability they provide together with the speed to process
jobs faster working in tandem with traditional processes. And
to further increase business, Custom Etch has its sights set
on a third GF AgieCharmilles laser system, the LASER 4000
5x with machine travels measuring 157.5” x 118.1” x 59.1” that
will further boost the shop’s part size capability where laser
texturing is concerned.
Custom Etch now does this extremely time consuming and
laborious traditional process of transferring a 2D pattern to a
3D surface in minutes with its GF AgieCharmilles 5-axis laser
texturing machines. But instead of the wax resist of the traditional
method, the shop uses an acid-resistant paint. Once
the lasers remove the paint where is necessary for the desired
pattern, the shop submerges the part into an acid bath as with
the traditional process.
“We’ve paired the two processes together – mapping the
texture with the laser system, then removing the material with
the old acid process,” commented Melonio. “The combination
allows us to cost effectively process our large volumes of
parts and do so as quickly as possible. It (the combination of
technologies) also, like the pallet system, further increases
the ROI of the laser technology as well.”
Additionally, Melonio said that the laser texturing systems
actually helps improve the accuracy of the acid etching
process. “It also improves the repeatability,” he added. “With
the old pottery tissue method, acid etching a pattern on 40
different parts would result in many pattern variations from
part to part. But with the lasers used instead, the surface
patterns will look exactly the same from the first mold to the
fiftieth to the hundredth. Identical to the point that even if the
mold is damaged, a weld spot could be applied, and the GF
AgieCharmilles 5-axis laser systems could impart the exact
same pattern feature in the exact same place on the cavity.”
Melonio also explained that the decision to use chemical,
laser or both technologies is based on the requirements of
the pattern design. The more intricate and complex a pattern,
the better a candidate for 100 percent laser texturing. Or, if for
instance, a line pattern requires tapered walls – acid cannot
etch three dimensionally, so the walls of the pattern would be
the same width from the top to the bottom, not tapered.
In those rare occasions when Custom Etch doesn’t use the
laser-texturing machines in some capacity or another, it is
usually because the job involves short programs and only
a couple mold components. The small volumes and simple
patterns make such jobs more cost effective to process the
traditional way and, according to Melonio, do not justify tying
up the laser systems.

GF Machining Solutions
GF Machining Solutions
560 Bond Street
Lincolnshire, IL, 60069
USA
Website: www.gfms.com/us
Email: info.gfms.us@georgfischer.com
Phone: 847-913-5300
© Machining Solutions, 2015
The technical data and illustrations are not binding.
They are not warranted characteristics and are
subject to change.
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