20
Reasons for Choosing TMC Optical Tops
Reasons 13 - 20
13. TMC’s honeycomb core is made of 0.010 in. (0.25 mm) thick steel, work-hardened and plated to prevent corrosion and assure years of service. Steel honeycomb is the ideal material for optical tops since the Young’s modulus of steel is three times that of aluminum. |
14. TMC’s
honeycomb core is a closed-cell structure with basic cell size of
0.5 in.2 (3 cm2), giving a core density of
13-14 lbs/ft3 (300 kg/m3), significantly greater
than others on the market. The effective core density is 18-20 (16
lbs./ft3) including sidewalls and dampers.
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15. Our honeycomb structures are totally TMC-manufactured, assuring reduced manufacturing cost, top quality, and dimensional precision. | |
| 16. The core, skins, and sidewalls of TMC tops are rigidly and permanently bonded with specially formulated high-strength epoxy, which has no viscoelastic creep or hysteresis. The overall shear modulus of TMC’s finished, bonded core is 275,000 psi (19,300 kg/cm2). | 17. The stainless steel version of TMC's CleanTop ® II cups offers the ultimate in an unbroken stainless steel barrier. This design renders the top immune to even repeated spills of the most corrosive liquids. | 18. Structural
damping of TMC tops is accomplished using broadband mass dampers
which are separate from the core, do not permit hysteresis or creep
of the top, and do not detract from the top’s stiffness. |
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| 19. Our unique, direct core-to-top bonding improves the thermal conductivity of the core to the outside environment, reducing the "thermal relaxation time" for the top. | 20. Our skins, core, sidewalls and dampers are all made of steel and therefore have the same coefficient of thermal expansion. Thus, even in situations with repeated temperature cycling, a TMC top expands and contracts as a whole, assuring structural integrity and preventing long-term internal stress buildup. |  |
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