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Printed Circuit Board Prototyping is the process of removing areas of copper from a sheet of printed circuit board material to recreate the pads, traces and structures found in the PC board's layout file data. Like the more common and well known chemical PCB etching process the PCB milling process is subtractive, material is removed to create the electrical isolation and ground planes required. However, unlike the chemical etch process PCB Milling is typically a chemical free process and as such it can be used in a typical office or lab environment without worry. High quality boards can be produced using either process. In the chemical etch process the quality of a board is governed by the accuracy/ quality of the photo masking and the state of the etching chemicals, both of which are the board designers control. In the case of PCB milling the quality of a board is chiefly determined by the system's true, or weighted, milling accuracy and control as well as the condition (sharpness, temper) of the milling bits and their respective feed/ rotational speeds all of which are directly under user control.
See PCB Milling for more details.