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News & Updates - April 2000

Hyperfine, Skin Stretch Forming

Boulder, CO, is turning into a small hub of SOFIA activity, because that's where Hyperfine Inc. is creating complex, one-of-a-kind gratings for two SOFIA instruments, AIRES and EXES.

Gratings are an integral part of many astronomy instruments. Just as prisms spread wavelengths apart by bending them, with light passing right through the prism, gratings spread different wavelengths apart by diffraction and reflection, with the light waves typically bouncing off the grating surface. The great thing about gratings is that the best of them can separate out, or disperse, wavelengths so far that scientists can get very precise information about what's going on in any particular wavelength region.

That's where Hyperfine comes in. Using a combination of handcraft machining skills and sophisticated calculations, this family-run company has created the largest monolithic, or single, gratings ever created for any instruments, with its 42-inch grating for AIRES and 40-inch grating for EXES. The former is now being tested and is scheduled for delivery soon, and the latter was delivered last year.

For both AIRES and EXES, the company has also perfected a one-of-a-kind technique to create very thin, machine-grooved, aluminum grating grooves that, despite their delicate nature, don't deform even after undergoing tremendous temperature changes-from room temperature down to 4 degrees Kelvin.

"It comes down to hand craftsmanship, along with believing it can be done in the first place," explains owner Bernie Bach, who runs the company with his wife, Johanna, and their sons, Kirk, Erich and Benny.

Meanwhile, Raytheon subcontractor AHF Ducommun Inc., based in Gardena, CA, is busy with what is known as "skin stretch forming." They're creating the outer skin of the section of the aircraft's fuselage around the exterior cuts for the telescope cavity. In this process, they generate a mold machined to the exact contour of the aircraft that makes the skin material set to that contour.

The skin in this picture, made of 2024 aluminum alloy, is part of a SOFIA contract that will be completed by the end of this year. Interesting fact of the day: AHF Ducummon Inc. is the oldest continuously operating company in California, having gotten its start providing picks and shovels to miners during the Gold Rush.

April 21, 2000