A ultra precision large optics grinder has been developed in response to the significant increase in the number of large mirror segments and machines them in hours, not days.

A new ultra precision large optics grinder, designed and produced at Cranfield University, was unveiled at the MACH 2006 exhibition. The BoX (Big OptiX) machine has been developed in response to the significant increase in the number of large mirror segments required for the next generation of extra large telescopes (ELT's), such as the James Webb Space Telescope, which will replace the Hubble Telescope at the end of the decade. Pat McKeown OBE, who unveiled the machine, is recognised as the only person to have received lifetime achievement awards from all three of the American, Japanese and European Societies for Precision Engineering.

Current 'state-of-the-art' manufacturing technologies for producing 1-2m ultra precision mirrors have processing times of hundreds of hours, meaning the time it takes to process a single ELT would be hundreds of years.

Cranfield's BoX machine radically reduces the processing time for these mirrors to hours as opposed to days.

Professor Paul Shore, head of Cranfield's Ultra Precision Engineering Centre explained the philosophy behind the BoX machine: 'Our goal was to engineer a machine with very high dynamic loop stiffness that would enable ultra precise large free-form optics to be rapidly ground with serial production capability, minimal sub-surface damage, all at minimum cost.

We have achieved this whilst retaining high precision design principles.

The BoX machine is a great achievement for both Cranfield and for the UK manufacturing industry.' The new machine is a simple box shape, allowing cost effective scale up or down.

The first machine permits parts up to 2m in diameter to be ground, with plans in place to develop the machine to provide a rapid and economic solution for grinding large off-axis aspherical and free-form optical components for industry.

The project was funded by the joint UK Research Councils Basic Technologies Programme with additional support from the McKeown Foundation for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology.

Cranfield is set to re-establish the importance of UK manufacturing capability in the field of ultra precision technology with the BoX.

Many of the machine's parts are UK produced and the concept has now been patented by Cranfield University.