Lightning-fast internet via glass fiber – that’s what everyone wants. But one tricky point in roll-out is the manual connection of two fiber ends. That demands accuracy, takes time and requires skills. TE Connectivity developed a connector that lends itself to automatic processing by a so-called Light Plug Tool.

Radio-isotopes are widely used for medical diagnostics and treatment, predominantly in cancer care. The current production method has only a 2% yield of the isotope wanted. The rest is mostly nuclear waste. Demcon helps to produce it with minimal nuclear waste.

To diagnose liver cancer, a physician takes a biopsy by accurately inserting a needle in the tumor. However, it is hard to reach the right spot manually based on the CT image. To overcome this, a needle placement robot helps the medical specialist find exactly the right angle to place the needle the first time right.

A Polaroid film cartridge production line in Enschede was revived from 2008 onward. Demcon Industrial Systems supports this process with a retrofit process module and works at improving the ultra-fast production line’s reliability. Both the line and the products are now better than ever.

3D Metal Jet Printing is about printing products made from micrometer-range droplets of various metals. The high conductivity of copper and silver could be combined with the rigidity of aluminium or stainless steel. Demcon took on the challenge of enabling this process by meeting the daring printing conditions.

After shipment of forty million coins from the Netherlands to their destination country, it appeared that an estimated one percent of the coins showed missing chips and discoloration. An on-site sorting machine was urgently required and Demcon built it within four weeks.

There are not enough rheumatologists for frequent monitoring of all RA (Rheumatoid arthritis) patients. The Hemics HandScan device addresses this by using inflammation detection in the hands through optical spectral transmission (OST).

We have grown accustomed to metal and concrete printing. But glass? It not only has a very high melting point, it also becomes brittle after solidifying too quickly. Together with the German specialist in advanced solutions from high-performance materials QSIL we cracked the ‘glass code’.

We designed a short-stroke wafer stage provided with a special metrology solution and high-efficiency motors. To this we added a complexly shaped magnetic shield, for which we developed a smart and dedicated manufacturing process.

ASML uses qualification tools in the development and production of systems such as position modules. Drawing on our extensive experience in this area, we focused the design of the PMQT4 qualification tool on helping ASML to accelerate development and streamline production.

Precision laser beam steering determines the quality and bandwidth of satellite laser communications for fast and secure internet and data traffic. For this purpose, the Fine Steering Mirror (FSM) has been designed.

Strictly speaking, the SMART project is not Big Science, but the collaboration of over 25 research institutes and high-tech companies working on a revolutionary technology for the production of radioisotope 99Mo is definitely impressive. The technology comprises a large electron accelerator and huge irradiation and extraction facilities. At the heart of the system is a matchbox-sized target that is irradiated by a 3-MW electron beam. Alongside the radiative load on the target and exposure unit, the heat load on the target is among the key challenges of the SMART project. Demcon is developing an ‘exotic’ solution: cooling with liquid sodium.

A spherical mount has been designed to align the return optic in a Fizeau interferometer with a laser beam. Faster alignment and a smaller distortion can be achieved by rotating the lens around a remote centre such that the return optic remains aligned with the optical axis of the beam.