Aerospace
Light-weighted mirrors and thermal-shock resistant structural components for satellite imaging systems and space telescopes.
Mass is the budget and thermal stability is the requirement. SPEKTON light-weights mirror substrates and prints load-bearing structures in aerospace alloys, then proves the assembly holds its optical alignment through the thermal and vibration profile it will actually fly.
Where we're used
Light-weighted mirrors
Silicon carbide and low-expansion mirror substrates with mass removed where the structure allows, for satellite imaging payloads and space telescopes.
Topology-optimized structures
LPBF-printed brackets, optical benches, and housings in Ti64, Invar, and AlSi10Mg: single-piece parts that replace bolted assemblies.
Thermal-shock resistant windows
Sapphire and fused silica apertures qualified for rapid temperature transitions on orbit and on re-entry-adjacent structures.
Capabilities behind it
- Metal Additive ManufacturingLaser powder bed fusion (LPBF), thermal shrinkage management, and high-density part production in the largest build chamber in the EMEA region (800 × 800 × 1500 mm).
- Flat OpticsManufacturing to ISO 10110 standards for windows, mirrors, prisms, filters, and master flats requiring high flatness and sub-micron TTV precision, up to 500 mm diameter.
- Optical & Optomechanical DesignOptomechanical athermalization across materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE), designed end to end in CAD and Zemax.
- MetrologyA 100% quality control philosophy: 18 inch wide-aperture interferometry, 20 inch optical profilometry, CMM, and surface reference testing infrastructure.
Typical materials
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