Ah, took a little while to figure out what you were talking about.
There's some confusion because almost all the finished boards are nickel plated too. It's a layer of copper on aluminum. I believe the insulator is probably kapton or a fiberglass layer impregnated with something "thermal". If it were just a super thick layer of anodizing the developer might strip it out.
Cut edges are a problem for etching/developing because you don't want exposed aluminum reacting with the etchant. I'm guessing it comes with a mask on the back or it's clear anodized.
As for soldering I'd just use the same technique for all SMT boards with ground planes, preheat the BACK to 150C, and then either manually solder the front or hot air the parts down with paste.
Of course if you are doing whole boards at once, the toaster oven method comes to mind.
I'm always doing exotic and multi layer boards at home, so have a little experience. Used to do it professionally, but can't afford the x-ray machine and reflow equipment.
I've made my own temperature controlled back side heater and use a modified craft hot air tool for home use.
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "H. Carl Ott" <hcarlott@...> wrote:
>
> On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 9:43 AM, Rogerio F Cunha <rogerio.cunha@...>wrote:
>
> > ∗∗
> >
> >
> > Hi list,
> >
> > Hello List,
> > Anyone has a idea how to produce a aluminium pcb over a virgin aluminum
> > board?
> > I'm looking a way to home brew a pcb to solder some power leds that are
> > very sensitivy to thermal dissipation.
> > By what I've seen, the companies applying some kind of metal deposit over a
> > virgin aluminium board, to permit soldering.
> >
>
> MCPCB
>
> Metal Core PCB. http://goo.gl/GXctT
>
> Not quite sure how the pros do it.
>
> If I was trying to fake it, I'd etch my led PCB on the thinnest copper
> clad I could find, with the largest copper lands I could get away with
> Then I'd bond the pcb to an alum back plate with some good thermal paste.
>
> -carl
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>