Logo of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
Production sequence of Si-spheres and interferometrical determination of the sphere volume

Microscope

The MICROSCOPE project is a collaboration of the French space agency CNES, the German space agency DLR, ONERA and Development Institute of the PTB under the umbrella of the ESA. It is the task of building scientific equipment, precision test masses made of Ti6Al4V alloy and the mechanically machined to extremely difficult to manufacture alloy PtRh10. The targeted and are usually already achieved tolerances in the range of a micron. To guarantee such precision, the integration of precision measurement technology in the production machines is just as important as the feedback of the results of these measurements on calibration standards.

For Scientific Instrumentation was and is necessary to expand the scope of projects the production skills to enable accurate and specific ultra-precision manufacturing methods in succession as "daily use" is applied and the laboratories of the PTB can be offered.

This challenge, here in particular the integration of precision measurement technology into a processing station, has asked the Scientific Instrumentation from the processing of space-MICROSCOPE project and can show convincing results.

PTB article: Development of production technology for the orbital project "Microscope"

To top