The Role of Research & Development in Photo Chemical Machinery

I have been asked by your Editor to contribute a regular column on various aspects of photo chemical machining. In this issue I would like to discuss the subject of Photo Chemical Machining Research and Development.

I became involved in photo chemical machining in 1976 and very quickly came to realize that it was bound up with a lot of”folklore” and was reputed to be one of the black arts! Some information on the subject was known and published but was of little practical value and was not distributed. Obviously one does not give away important data of a highly commercial nature but I do believe over­zealous “guardians of knowledge” have retarded the growth of the photo chemical machining industry as indi­cated by the fact that engineers know so little about it.