Services

Tha SIF team solves technical design issues and provides creative, timely, and cost effective solutions to all mechanical design and construction problems.

• Instrument Design & Construction
• Equipped with the latest in CAD/CAM software,we can reverse engineer and design from a sample part or from the most basic of quick sketches
• Using Solidworks and Mastercam, we often design from scratch and recommend the proper materials and engineering for the application
• Fifteen years ago, almost 90% of our work was done, quite literally, from sketches on the backs of envelopes, or, if we were lucky, on yellow lined paper. Only about 10% was from real mechanical drawings. Now at least 50% is done directly from your computer files to our machines. We can work from DXF, IGES, STEPP, ASCII, or practically any other file, but we also still work from sketches nearly every day.

The SIF offers consultation sessions for researchers seeking advice and recommendations on commercially available products, parts, vendors, literature, vacuum systems, assembly houses, and much more. We can advise on materials and design at any stage of a project, but of course earlier is better. A short consultation session  can translate into tremendous cost savings for customers. The SIF staff offers a total perspective on the design process through its diverse portfolio of experience and connections.

In addition, we act as a clearing house for sending appropriate jobs to external shops. Should a process or procedure be required in the building of any device which is outside our own abilities in terms of equipment, we have access to vendors who supply heat treating, water jet cutting, laser welding, electro polishing, passivating, anodising, plating, powder coating, etc.

Our highly skilled instrument makers have extensive experience machining all conventional materials, exotic alloys, plastics, composites, and some ceramics. Although about 60% of our work is aluminum, 20% stainless, and 10% plastic, we also work with oxygen free and/or oxygen free high-conductivity copper, gold, silver, platinum, tantalum, titanium, molybdenum, inconel, hastelloy, tungsten, macor, and many other materials. Machining accuracies to .0002", especially with our new wire EDM machine.

We do all types of welding, including ultra high vacuum in stainless, aluminum, titanium, etc., TIG, MIG, brazing, and silver solder. Bellows to .007" with proper prep; sometimes less.

The SIF offers customized design, manufacture, and assembly of scientific equipment and other related hardware.

• Scientific Instrument Assembly
• Vacuum chambers
• Instrument housings
• Telescope parts and assemblies
• Satellite parts
• Robotics
• Manipulators
• Mechanical Movements
• Hardware
  • Mounting
  • Fasteners
  • Spacers
  • Brackets

  And much more

The SIF engineering team is fully capable of servicing the mechanical aspects of most laboratory equipment. Repair jobs can be tricky because it is a matter of balancing resources and time. The repairs must be completed in a timely fashion so that repair costs do not exceed the ticket price of the equipment that is being repaired. Our repair endeavors will be greatly aided if we have the following:

• Clear description of the problem
• The ability to repeatably reproduce the problem in our shop
• Users Manual
• Access to replacement parts

The SIF offers hands-on learning opportunities for undergraduate, graduates, and professionals. We offer a 9 week course in the Student Training Center, within the SIF, which introduces students to drafting, Solidworks, and the use of modern machine tools in a research environment. The objective of the course is to enable students to more effectively communicate with, and design for, such a shop in the future.

The SIF uses Solidworks, Mastercam, and Esprit software for design and machine control.