About

AEON has continued its investment in CERES (AEON’s Centre for Engineering and RESearch), situated at its headquarters in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. The facility supports the developing aerospace and R&D sectors across the Midlands, North-West and wider UK. AEON are able to offer a 3m x 2m Cleanroom to ISO Class 7. The cleanroom is a controlled environment for the assembly, integration and testing of sensitive hardware and complements existing CERES facilities, such at the thermal vacuum chamber and a host of UV-NIR spectroscopy equipment.

Specification:

• Internally sized: 3000mm(L) x 2070mm(W) x 2240mm(H)
• ISO Class 7
• Modular and manoeuvrable
• ECSS Standard 

Project

AEON provides bakeout services to Space Technology and service providers. In most instances, hardware cannot be exposed to uncontrolled, or otherwise contaminated operating environments as small particulates can introduce points of failure to delicate or sensitive hardware, such as optics. The need to maintain high levels of particle control (when assembling, handling, testing or processing flight hardware) is typically established by the need for the system to successfully operate once launched. The introduction of contaminants can have devastating implications for any mission.

Cleanrooms are an essential part of working with sensitive hardware where contamination may cause failures; they provide an environment where particulates are controlled to acceptable levels. Initially by filtering the air entering the cleanroom, but also controlling the flow of air within the cleanroom as any particles generated by activities being performed in the cleanroom need to be efficiently removed whilst simultaneously preventing self-contamination and contamination of any other hardware apparent in the room.

Results

AEON have successfully operated the cleanroom for over twelve months, using the clean environment to handle and prepare flight hardware for vacuum bake out, and to perform optical characterisation of wide-band optics. The cleanroom is a key infrastructure asset that ensures high levels of control which our customers demand.

Can we help?

If you would like to know more about AEON’s CERES facility, TVAC or cleanroom capabilities, or to enquire how AEON can help you, please contact us for an informal discussion.