Product category:
Materials and components
News Release from: Tecan | Subject: Customised precision meshes
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 23 September 2004
Mesh pushes research boundaries to new
levels
Tecan has won favour with the world's leading mass spectrometer manufacturers through its ability to produce cost-effective customised precision meshes.
Weymouth based ultra-fine metal mesh specialist, Tecan, has won favour with the world's leading mass spectrometer manufacturers through its ability to produce cost-effective customised precision meshes with a range of benefits compared with traditional mesh Crucial to the successful development of the new-generation mass spectrometers was Tecan's ability to deliver new mesh technology that would eradicate the problems associated with off-the-shelf meshes from traditional suppliers, which suffered from restriction such as "square-only" apertures and across-mesh rigidity problems
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 12 Mar 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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The new meshes can be custom produced with bespoke aperture shapes and sizes, relevant to the particles being measured by the instrument - with little or no cost premium.
Effectively, this allows the instrument's "analytical window" to be increased in size, while improving sensitivity and accuracy, with aperture tolerances from +/-2um.
Furthermore, mesh thickness can be selectively increased, beyond 1:1 aspect ratios, to meet exact strength and rigidity requirements.
Further reading
Detailed precision parts with critical tolerances
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For example, solid portions such as lateral supports can easily be incorporated into the design.
Mesh can also be supplied to individually specified shapes with significant reductions in customer-side processing.
Tecan's mesh manufacturing technology can be readily transferred to a wide range of applications where cost-effective custom precision is essential, such as medical, pharmaceutical, food, aerospace and electronics applications.
Highly accurate and cost-effective custom mesh designs can be produced to satisfy virtually any filtering and sieving requirements using precision photo electroforming (PEF).
Easy cleaning and long operational life are resultant advantages of the PEF process.
Unlike traditional products, the single-sheet sieves do not have crossover areas, such as those found in woven-wire sieves.
This brings a range of benefits, including the elimination of contamination due to trapped particles or bacteria, no de-lamination at the edges, consistent cross-sectional thickness and consistently accurate aperture shapes and sizes.
Mesh membranes can be produced as flat sheets, as flexible membranes, or in three-dimensional forms.
Various surface textures include bright, semi-bright, matt, smooth or brushed finishes.
The company employs a total design and engineering solution philosophy based on an extensive proven capability and is keen to solve individual problems - to individually deliver optimum operational performance at minimum cost.
The service encompasses prototype, initial production runs and quantity manufacture, as necessary.
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