Almatech contributeS to many ESA/CNES missions in the field of complex structures, high-precision mechanisms and thermal HW

Our Mission

Making space instruments more precise and more reliable

More precise: Spaceborne instruments for Science as well as for Earth Observation require more and more precision that can only be achieved with a structure designed to be robust against all variations from the space environment

More reliable: Reliability is the number one performance indicator for space assets. Almatech believes that the future of space mechanisms lies in “compliant mechanisms”, a new type of elegant mechanisms in which the motion comes only from the elastic deformation of certain parts, this avoiding the use of bearings and lubricants

Flight Hardware References

Ground support equipment

Customers

Facilities

Workshop

Almatech benefis from 2 handy ISO 8 workshops that serve as storing equipment, visual inspection rooms, assembly and integration rooms.

Clean Rooms

Almatech owns and operates 2 clean rooms classified ISO 5 for all operations requiring a high degree of cleanliness. A CCM machine is installed for in-house dimensional control and alignment. The total surface is 50m2.

EPFL and Swiss Space Center

Located on the EPFL Innovation Park, Almatech benefits from a privileged access to the EPFL and Swiss Space Center laboratories and facilities, including equipment for mechanical testing, thermal vacuum chambers, bigger clean rooms, etc.

Publications

Almatech publications and presentations

Paciotti, Humphries, Rottmeier and Blecha, Development and preliminary testing of a high precision long stroke Slit Change Mechanism for the SPICE instrument, Proceedings of the 42nd Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, May 14-16, 2014

Lai, Rottmeier, Humphries and Blecha, Design and Dynamic Optimization of a Tristable X-Ray Attenuator Mechanism for the STIX Instrument, Proceedings of the 16thEuropean Space Mechanisms and Tribology Symposium , Bilbao 23-25 September 2015

 

Khanenya, Paciotti, Forzani and Blecha, Development and Testing of a High-Precision Position and Attitude Measuring System for a Space Mechanism, Proceedings of the 43rd Aerospace Mechanisms Symposium, NASA Ames Research Center, May 4-6, 2016

Blecha, Zindel, Cottard, Beck, Cessa, Broeg, Ratti and Rando, Analytical optimization and test validation of the Sub-micron Dimensional Stability of the CHEOPS Space Telescope’s CFRP Structure, Proceedings of the international society for optics and photonics SPIE Vol. 9912, 99121G.