About Us
Through its partner institutions, UPS2 has access to a comprehensive range of unique world-class surface structuring and metrology facilities and specialist equipment that is unrivalled in the UK.
Technium OpTIC
The £15 million Technium OpTIC is an initiative of the Welsh Optics Forum. The temperature controlled Ultra Precision Surfaces (UPS) laboratory at OpTIC houses the world's most effective ultra precision machining systems for producing advanced functional surfaces in a wide range of materials, providing unique capability for many next generation products. UPS2 therefore has full processing capability (from small-scale artefacts up to 1.2 metres, with a partial capability to 2 metres) comprising:
- the BoX ultra precision large optics grinder (2 metres capacity) developed at Cranfield University
- Zeeko ultra-precision polishing machines covering small, medium and large (up to 1.2 metres) capacities embodying classic, abrasive pad and fluid jet polishing technologies
- the Reactive Atom Plasma Technology surface finishing facility developed by RAPT Industries in partnership with Cranfield University
The laboratory also has a full suite of surface metrology equipment, including measurement interferometers: high stability for form measurement, miniature high accuracy, and white-light for small scale surface profiling.
Cranfield University
Cranfield University is world-renowned for its research in ultra precision technologies. Focusing on the design and development of novel machine tools which operate at nano levels of accuracy, Cranfield is currently developing a number of ultra precision machine tools. These will meet the optical fabrication challenges in relation to the proposed extra-large telescopes. These are commercially funded activities supporting the manufacture of next generation IR optics and science mission-driven activities, including the manufacturing development of the spectrometer slicers for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope which replaces the Hubble telescope.Cranfield also conducts precision measurement research covering a wide variety of techniques, including dimensional and angular metrology using contact and non-contact techniques.
Cranfield provides access to its state-of-the-art ultra precision, micro-engineering and advanced coating laboratories. The commitment of a £1.2 million SRIF grant by Cranfield to precision surfaces equipment augments these with several unique and outstanding facilities:
- acquisition of the world's most accurate large scale (3m x 2m x 1m) Co-ordinate Measuring Machine (CMM)
- acquisition of the world's most accurate optical 3D surface profiler;
- development of large capacity ultra precision diamond turning facilities;
University College London (UCL)
UCL's new adaptive optics facility within their Optical Sciences Laboratory further augments the facilities of UPS2 .
In the 1980's, the Laboratory acquired a 1m polishing machine and a 2.5m polishing and generating machine, together with the complete suite of test equipment from the former Grubb Parsons company. This formed the nucleus of the new optical fabrication facility located on the UCL campus in London. The largest mirror produced was a 1.8m diameter nickel-coated aluminium mirror under contract to the Birr Foundation. The work on metal mirrors developed into adaptive metal mirror technology; mirrors that could be deformed in real time to compensate for optical distortions.
The success of the work led to increasing stresses due to the lack of space in central London, and the 2.5m machine has been sold to release space. The on-campus facility has been re-focussed on the adaptive mirror part of the programme, and collaborations on optics for specific instrumentation. For example, an advanced light-weight carbon-fibre composite deformable mirror is currently under development. The major thrust on computer controlled polishing was moved to the OpTIC Technium in N. Wales in 2004, with the establishment of the UCL/Cranfield National Facility for Ultra Precision Surfaces. This is equipped to produce optics up to 1.2m diameter using the most advanced processes available world-wide. Current applications being explored include mirror-segments for extremely large telescopes and mirrors for fusion reactors.
University of Cambridge
Through the involvement of the University of Cambridge other state-of-the-art surface-structuring facilities are available to UPS2 including: nano, pico and femtosecond laser machining systems, dual beam FIB/SEM machining and imaging tools, a range of white light interferometric microscopes and extensive nano and micro imprint lithography capabilities.