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PEABODY,
Massachusetts, April 28, 2000 – Technical Manufacturing Corporation (TMC) announced today that it had recently received
a sizeable order from the U.S. Department of Energy"s Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory for its National Ignition Facility
(NIF) program.
NIF is an inertial confinement fusion research facility whose primary
mission will be helping ensure the safety and reliability of the
nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. The stadium-sized NIF will
focus 192 giant laser beams onto a target the size of a cold capsule,
subjecting it to the same temperatures and pressures found in an
exploding thermonuclear weapon, or in the sun and stars. The order
requires a total of 348 CleanTop® Steel Honeycomb Optical Tops, nearly all eight feet long, to
be delivered in just over three months. TMC received the order
based on its leadership position in the Optical Top industry and
its long history of meeting critical technical and delivery specifications.
Steve Ryan, TMC's Vice President of Sales and
Marketing commented, 'Many firms wouldn't be capable of meeting
either the technical or delivery requirements for this project.
For instance, the stringent cleanliness specification requires that
each of the one-and-a-half million tapped holes on the tops be back-sealed
and airtight. This is a standard feature of our patented CleanTop® II.
With our in-house inventory of hundreds of Optical Table grade stainless
steel top sheets, our technically advanced, yet cost-effective products,
and our proven track record of meeting extra-tight delivery schedules,
it's no surprise who NIF chose for this assignment.'Ulf Heide, founder
and President of TMC added, 'Meeting stringent technical specifications
under tight time constraints is certainly not new to us. In fact,
I can remember a similar instance when a project was facing great
difficulty, the Hubble Space Telescope. We were asked because of
our reputation, product line, and technical capabilities to fabricate
a complex Optical Table system with unprecedented cleanliness requirements
in a very short amount of time for testing and calibrating components
in the COSTAR repair module.
Mr. Heide continued, 'From the very beginning
of our company over thirty years ago, we conditioned ourselves to
meet the ever-changing designs, ramp-ups, and new delivery schedules
presented to us by our valued customers in the rapidly growing yet
cyclic semiconductor equipment industry, most of whom we still serve
today.'
For most companies, an order of this magnitude,
under these tight time constraints, would be more than a little
unsettling. This is certainly not the case for TMC. As Mr. Heide
explained, 'We've designed our factories, processes, and conditioned
our people so we could ádo it right the first time,' long before
Quality systems were even discussed at most firms. We're focused
on exceeding our customers' expectations, and I suspect that we'll
be called upon to meet demanding technical requirements under tight
time constraints for years to come. After all, that's what has enabled
us to become the market leader in every market we serve.'
TMC designs and manufactures precision vibration
isolation systems for sensitive research and manufacturing processes
worldwide. The ISO-certified Companys industry-standard product
line includes CleanTop® Optical Tables and Breadboards, pneumatic
vibration isolation systems in a variety of shapes and sizes, Quiet
Island® sub-floor platforms for cleanroom raised-floors; state-of-the-art
active isolators; microscope tables; and OEM isolator designs and
acoustic enclosures. Standard and custom configurations plus a broad
array of accessories are available.
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to
ensure national security and apply science and technology to the
important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
is managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department
of Energy.
CleanTop® II and Quiet Island® are
trademarks of Technical Manufacturing Corporation.
Click
for More Photos of NIF Breadboards
Contact:
Steve Ryan
Technical Manufacturing Corp.
978-532-6330
sryan@techmfg.com
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