Etching is the art of producing pictures or designs by printing from an etched metal plate. This is the definition provided by the well known Webster dictionary. It is easy to produce an etching (as a pattern or design) on a hard material by eating into the material’s surface.
Etching is the method of printmaking in which the image is incised into the surface of a metal plate using an acid. The acid eats the metal, leaving behind roughened areas, or if the surface exposed to the acid is very narrow, burning a line into the plate. The process is believed to have been invented by Daniel Hopfer (circa 1470-1536) of Augsburg, Germany, who decorated armour in this way, and applied the method to printmaking. Etching is also used in the manufacturing of printed circuit boards and semiconductor devices.
Artists usually use acid to produce their etching works. This technique is very well known from many years ago. But technology is starting to change the things. Instead of using dangerous substances as acids now many artists have started to use laser beams to produce their works. This techniques is called Laser etching or laser etching engraving.
There are other techniques used mainly by industrial systems. For example, dry etching refers to the removal of material, typically a masked pattern of semiconductor material, by exposing the material to a bombardment of ions (usually a plasma of nitrogen, chlorine and boron trichloride) that dislodge portions of the material from the exposed surface. Unlike with many (but not all, see isotropic etching) of the wet chemical etchants used in wet etching, the dry etching process typically etches directionally or anisotropically.
Incoming search terms:
- laser engraving theory
- laser engraving printmaking
- laser etching printmaking
- printmaking laser engraving
- printmaking laser engraving theory discuss