A while ago we had a discussion about being able to see the remaining reservoir between the cap jewel and the balance jewel. For quite a while, I had been fooled by the undercut in the main jewel into thinking that shadow was the reservoir until one of…
Continue readingSilicon Micromachining
A work buddy and I were wondering how they make silicon hairsprings.
Continue readingSegue to my desktop; I’m running tests and while they go, I’m reading “Horology” by Barry B. Kaplan, 2022, Shiffer Publishing Ltd., New York, and he outs it.
It’s a process called DRIE or Deep Reactive Ion Etching https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_reactive-ion_etching where ions are accelerated in an ionized gas toward the subject and etch where not masked. Since they are accelerated toward the work by a…
