Engineering Services Overview
IMTEC's Engineering Services are a recognized leader in the research and development of cutting-edge X-ray imaging products and highly sophisticated engineering technology for the science community.
Current Projects
IMTEC Supports World's Largest Optical Telescope
The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) will be the largest optical telescope ever built. With it scientists will be able to see farther into the universe and with greater detail than ever before. The TMT promises to greatly expand our knowledge of the universe and to create new opportunities for discovery. For example, the TMT will allow scientists to directly view planets orbiting stars other than the sun. Such observation will allow scientists to determine the presence of liquid water, a requirement for life as we know it.
Because it is impossible to build a single thirty meter mirror, the TMT’s mirror will be built from 492 hexagon-shaped segments. To meet the highly demanding optical requirements for the TMT these segments must be supported and positioned to tolerances measured in nanometers (billionths of a meter). As a leader in the design and development of highly stable optical mounts IMTEC was contracted to design this segment support system.
IMTEC’s engineers have spent thousands of hours over the last 2 ½ years developing this mount system. After extremely detailed modeling and analysis IMTEC has produced a support design that has an excellent chance of success. Production of the first prototype was begun in early 2008.
In addition to the work on the primary mirror support, IMTEC has started a design and planning study for the tertiary mirror. The TMT’s tertiary mirror will sit in the middle of the primary mirror and direct light to instruments located on platforms on the periphery of the primary mirror. When completed the tertiary mirror will be the world’s largest flat optical mirror...more >
GLAST (Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope)
GLAST is a next generation high-energy gamma-ray observatory designed for making observations of celestial gamma-ray sources in the energy band extending from 10MeV to more than 100GeV. IMTEC played an important role in the design and analysis of the calorimeter, tracker and grid support structures, developing unique design concepts that solved the many technical challenges of GLAST.
Mechanical prototypes of the calorimeter and tracker subsystems were fabricated and tested in order to validate design choices.
IMTEC played a key role in the design, analysis and testing of the tracker subsystem mechanical structures. IMTEC’s efforts have included the development of an innovative, low mass, passively cooled silicon tracker that draws upon carbon-carbon composite materials to meet the unique challenges of the tracker physics criteria. A full-scale testing program qualified the design to NASA specifications.
STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory)
Successfully launched on October 25, 2006, the Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) is the primary science instrument suite aboard the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) mission. The primary goal of the SECCHI is to advance the understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the sun’s corona, especially regarding the origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), their evolution in the interplanetary medium and the dynamic coupling between CMEs and the Earth’s environment. This will be accomplished by an unprecedented combination of imaging instruments mounted on duplicate spacecraft flanking the Earth in its orbit around the sun.
IMTEC’s responsibilities on the STEREO program include: development of requirements specifications, mechanical systems engineering, interface control documentation, design, analysis, integration and environmental testing.
IMTEC’s design makes use of high stiffness near zero expansion composite material and an innovative kinematic mount and alignment system to provide a stable, yet ultra lightweight, structure to support the suite of optical instruments. Key design features of the instrument structures are dimensional stability, stiffness, contamination control and cost. The design meets stringent mass budget and 30 arcsec instrument co-alignment requirements essential to mission success.
Quality and Experience
IMTEC's expertise and experience as a systems integrator accustomed to designing and delivering hardware for complex, multi-faceted programs spans a wide array of high-technology engineering, including:
Structural and thermal engineering
Aerospace systems
Advanced materials
Automation
Data processing
Software development
IMTEC's engineering teams conceive, design, build and test ingenious solutions to unique challenges. We are focused on meeting our customers' technical, cost, and quality expectations.
From LIGO through Thirty Meter Telescope, IMTEC ’s engineering teams have been involved in some of the most exciting, big science and unique detector programs in the world.
What's New
- 05/19/08 3M announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire IMTEC Corp.
- 05/15/08 3M to Aquire IMTEC Corporation
- 02/20/08 IMTEC to Become Technology Solutions Provider for Meat & Livestock Australia
- 02/05/08 IMTEC complimented for design work on thirty meter telescope
News Archive
- 03/19/07 HYTEC's 3-D, X-ray scanners illuminate new markets
- 03/07/07 HYTEC Inc. mergers with IMTEC Corporation
- 09/01/03 HYTEC wins R&D 100 Award for FlashCT