Micromech has recently been awarded a contract to supply motors, drives and other related equipment for Diamond Light Source
Diamond Light Source is a prestigious new synchrotron, currently being built in South Oxfordshire on the Chilton/Harwell science campus.
This new science facility could be described as a 'super microscope', housed in a striking doughnut-shaped building over half a kilometre in circumference, and covering an area the size of five football pitches.
Diamond will ultimately host more than 30 cutting edge research stations, supporting the life, physical and environmental sciences. Micromech supplies a wide range of motion control products plus associated equipment to industry and manufacturing.
From a comprehensive range of components to complete motion control packages, Micromech offers a first class before and after technical support service.
At the heart of a synchrotron is its storage ring; a doughnut-shaped vacuum chamber through which electrons hurtle at nearly the speed of light.
As these electrons circle through specially designed magnets arrayed around the ring, they lose energy, which emerges as beams of very bright, highly-focused light of different wavelengths such as X-rays.
It is this light that scientists use to drive their experiments.
The 650m circumference storage ring is made up of 24 segments or cells, comprising magnets, diagnostics and vacuum equipment supported on a system of girders.
These girders are mounted on cams, which will provide highly precise adjustments to the girders' orientation as required by the overall control system.
A few times over the course of the year, the system will be required to make minute adjustments to the storage ring to compensate for movement in the building's foundations.
The storage ring positioning system will use 375 motor gearbox assemblies, with the overall output of the motor-gearbox being in excess of 300Nm to position the ring accurately.
Micromech will additionally supply all necessary cables, drive amplifiers, power supplies and controller cards, which will be assembled and tested at Micromech in racks supplied by Diamond, and then commissioned onsite in the storage ring.
