Chemical etching
Chemical etching is the best way for decorating of glass by matted-etched surface. Its extraordinary quality cannot be obtained by any other means. It is perfect.
| Chemical etching
It is not difficult to understand why chemical etched surface so essentially differs from surfaces obtained by other surface modifying methods. At right you see the picture (taken through microscope) of chemically etched surface. Surface, modified by any kind of etching, become topographically uneven and is characterized by peaks and valleys. In case of chemical etching it is granular (mainly prominencies) with smooth corners and due to this fact is not so adhesive to external contacting materials. It is especially clear after comparison with the following pictures of mechanically etched results. |
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| Sandblasting
Sandblasted surface is obtained by mechanical striking distractions, it looks and behaves accordingly. Due to multiple sharp edges of these distractions it is extremely adhesive to any contacting materials and without special coating cannot be used at all. |
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| Laser treated surface is the next step in the same direction as sandblasting. Resulting surface is already not only adhesive, but it is already a good abrasive. |  |
Uniform etching
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It make sense to apply uniform etching for these cases when corresponding etched glass is absent on the local glass stores. It is suitable for relatively rarely used kinds of glass. Also it allows producing two sided etched glass. However, for the etching of the second side you need to repeat the whole process, because it is impossible to etch both sides at once. |
Artistic etching
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For artistic etching a treated surface is limited with pattern. Artistic etching is the main company activity. |
2x etching
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Repeated treatment of a part of already etched surface forms the zone of third “color”, because double treatment increases relief density. Contrast between zones of single and double etching is not as significant as between clear and single etched surfaces, but it exists and in some cases enriches artistic result. |
2-side etching
In the simplest case 2-side etching is used to duplicate pattern of one side to another, to decrease transparency of etched zone and make both sides the same. However, by using this possibility in another way it is possible to increase expressiveness of etched result by combination of parts of pattern divided to both sides.
NB! 2-side etching is equivalent 2 separate actions of etching.
Superposition
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Superposition takes a place at the areas of intersections of etched areas from one side with etched zones of another side. The resulting optical effect looks different. Besides that the etched surfaces look different from other side of glass. It makes possible to design “4-colored” etching schemes. |
Combination
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In case of combination the image must be divided for two sides in a manner when one part of it have to be etched on one side of glass and other part on the opposite side. Due to different look of etched surfaces from opposite sides, such combination in the corresponding circumstances looks much richer. Due to glass thickness that separates parts of etched image a kind of 3D effect appears. |
2side+2x
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Superposition of etchings of both sides may be complemented by 2x etching yielding the “5-color” composition. Naturally these complicated effects need corresponding lighting to be visible. |
Multilayered compositions
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Mentioned above methods may be implemented on combination of several glasses, usually of two. Such combinations along with light decisions allow to create very complicated multilayered and tremendously beautiful compositions with different secondary effects. |
