Parts for instrumentation used in space observation, both terrestrial and satellite-based, are machined to tight tolerances on two Hurco vertical machining centres (VMCs) at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), near Didcot. High accuracy is essential, as radio telescopes for which parts are being made, including the ALMA instrument in northern Chile, have to detect high frequency signals in the 95 GHz to 2.5 THz range. Wavelengths are consequently very short and sensitive to dimensional variation in sensing devices. The latest machining centre in the Millimetre Technology Group’s Precision Development Facility (PDF) within RAL Space, as the Department is known, is a 5-axis Hurco model, VM10U, which was installed in April 2011. Fitted with Renishaw tool setting, the machine was purchased

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