Centre of Excellence in metrology cleanroom opened
The new £1.3m (€1.7m) cleanroom at AMETEK Taylor Hobson’s headquarters in Leicester, UK, has been dedicated by Lord Sainsbury of Turville, former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science and Innovation.
The new cleanroom, which consists of Class 7 (10,000) and Class 4 (10) areas, is equipped with the latest metrology instrumentation for micro and nano technologies (MNT). The facility is an expansion of Taylor Hobson’s Centre of Excellence laboratory at Leicester, which provides measurement support, training and advice to UK manufacturing and research companies in the field of MNT through the CEMMNT (Centre of Excellence in Metrology for Micro and Nano Technologies) partnership.
Taylor Hobson, a leader in the manufacture of ultra-precision measurement instrumentation, has partnered with the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and four other global leaders in MNT (The UK National Physical Laboratory, QinetiQ, Coventor, and BAE Systems) in supporting CEMMNT, a five-year project to accelerate the commercial development of MNT technologies across the UK.
DTI has provided £4.3m (€5.8m) of funding from the MNT Capital Facilities Programme to CEMMNT for the creation of four Centres of Excellence nationwide.
‘We believe that this superb new facility provides us with the opportunity to share our knowledge and experience with a broad cross section of industry,’ said Dean Westmoreland, managing director of Taylor Hobson. ‘We have made a significant investment in the partnership with DTI to give industry greater access to state-of-the-art instrumentation such as our Coherence Correlation Interferometer and Form Talysurf PGI, both of which are class-leading measurement instruments that provide the very best in sub nanometer surface measurement.
‘Through our truly global network we have the ability to provide tailored metrology solutions not only to the UK, but on a worldwide basis, with trained accredited engineers throughout Europe, Asia, America, India and the Middle East.’
Taylor Hobson is a leading manufacturer of ultra-precision measurement instrumentation for a variety of markets, including optics, semiconductors, hard disk drives and nanotechnology research. It is a unit of AMETEK Inc, a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with annual sales of more than US$2.0bn (£1bn; €1.4bn).
