Shear foil having protrusions on its skin-contacting surface thereof

A method for producing a shear element having protrusions on the skin-contacting surface thereof, comprising the steps of:

• coating an electrically conductive surface with a photoresist;
• exposing said photoresist to a hole pattern and developing said photoresist to produce a grid pattern wherein said electrically conductive surface is exposed, said grid pattern defining hole areas wherein said electrically conductive surface is covered by islands of photoresist of a predetermined thickness;
• introducing irregularities into the surface elevation of said exposed grid, said surface irregularities being of lesser dimension than the thickness of said photoresist islands;
• depositing an intermediate foil onto said exposed grid overlying said introduced surface irregularities, said intermediate foil being of sufficient thickness to extend above said photoresist islands when deposited;
• depositing a shear foil overlying said intermediate foil;
• and
• removing said shear foil from said intermediate foil;
• whereby there is produced a shear foil having protrusions on the skin-contacting surface thereof but having relatively smooth surfaces in the regions surrounding shear openings which are disposed on said shear foil in correspondence with the positioning of said photoresist islands.