50 nanometer lapping machine for AWE

The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) has an enviable reputation as an innovator in many fields of science and technology.

The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) has an enviable reputation as an innovator in many fields of science and technology.

One area in which it has led the field is in the use of high powered lasers to study the physics of high energy density plasmas.

The beams from AWE's one terawatt HELEN high powered laser system can be focused into a very small volume (less than 1mm3) in timescales of the order of one thousand-millionth of a second to produce temperatures of up to three million degrees.

Under these conditions, given sufficient energy and with appropriately designed miniature targets scientists can replicate in the laboratory the physical conditions at the heart of a nuclear reaction - albeit on a minute scale and over a tiny fraction of second.

Experiments are designed to study phenomena such as radiation flow, opacity and mix and to provide data for analysis.

Such experiments require the manufacture of very small target parts, usually of less than 1mm in diameter, in a range of metals including gold and titanium as well as a range of polymer materials.

The accuracy and flatness of surface finish of these very small parts is critical to the success of the experiments, and it is to produce these very high quality surface finishes that AWE has invested in an AM15 lapping machine from Engis UK.

This bench-top machine, which has been developed for use with advanced materials and in prototype and small volume work in RandD applications, is able to reliably and repeatably create surface finishes of better than 50 nanometer RMS.

Back to top