I have been pondering the false walls idea for a while. I would experiment with driving the bubbles up the tank walls to cause the return flow of 'Unbubbled' etchant to flow down the surface of the PCB. -This should take away the etching issues caused by the incorrect bubble size or rate of bubbling. The spacing between the false walls and the PCB should be kept small to ensure there is a decending flow at the surface of the PCB. As the etching by-product is heavier, having a decending flow makes sense. The bubble bar/hose should be a little way up in the bubble channel. I suspect the greater the column height of the bubbles the greater the etchant flow rate will be. Bubbling may need to be much stronger with this arrangement to induce the desired flow It would be good if the etch by-products could stagnate on the bottom of the tank and not be involved in a new etch cycle. This would probably be achieved by having the false walls rest on the bottom of the tank but have slots or a row of holes 15cm up the walls for the etchant to flow back into the bubble channels during etching. If the false walls are thick, then less etchant is required in the tank. The etchant decent rate over the PCB surface could be tested with water and food colouring. Regards > > How about false walls and have the bubble flow > up the PCB and the fluid flow down the side in > a seperated channel behind the false walls > > | | > |~~~~~~~~~~~| > | | | | > | | | | | > | | o|o | | > | | o|o | | > | | | | | > | | | | | > | | | | | > | | o|o | | > | | o|o | | > | | | | | > | _o o_ | > | [ ] [ ] | > '-----------' >
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Re: etch tank idea
2008-04-30 by warrenbrayshaw
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