NCAR Design and Fabrication Services: Handcrafted Hardware for Atmospheric Sampling
Since 1960, NCAR has provided the science community with tools and services that it might not otherwise have. Though it grabs fewer headlines than the advanced research aircraft or powerful new supercomputers, instrumentation creation is one of NCAR’s most important services as it is essential for answering research questions. Scientists studying Earth, the atmosphere, oceans, and space have come to depend on these instruments and the team that delivers them.
Whether creating something from scratch based on conversations with a principal investigator, or rendering into physical form a researcher’s hand-drawn interpretation of an instrument, the skilled team of design and fabrication services staff can design it, build it, and provide seasoned counsel on use, based on years of experience.An instrument’s purpose, the materials used to create it, where and how long it will be used, and other factors all need to be considered both prior to and during instrumentation manufacture. Consequently, the design and fabrication process requires a combination of ingenuity, craftsmanship, patience, and a solid understanding of science and engineering. Part of the Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL), Design and Fabrication Service (DFS) designers, engineers, and highly skilled fabrication specialists work closely together, having invented and constructed innumerable scientific devices throughout NCAR’s history.
Like any workshop, DFS is stocked with everything from manual to power tools⎯although in this case, many of the power tools are precision and computer-aided versions. Together, this equipment is used to roll, turn, spin, cut, and otherwise shape a variety of metals⎯aluminum, copper, brass⎯and plastics, transforming them into just about anything a scientist needs. Machine shop products range from heavy parts for radar pedestals to tapered aircraft inlets to light-weight, precise optical mountings for aircraft or satellite instruments.
But more than the tools and machinery, it’s the team of skilled technicians that is responsible for this instrumental magic. Whether creating something from scratch based on conversations with a principal investigator, or rendering into physical form a researcher’s hand-drawn interpretation of an instrument, the design and fabrication services staff can design it, build it, and provide seasoned counsel based on years of experience.
Within NCAR’s scientific community, DFS has a reputation of being able to build just about anything a given experiment requires. Among its many recent projects, last fall the team created a gondola and pointing system for the Sunrise telescope. The gondola design team, which included NCAR’s High Altitude Observatory staff, had to ensure that, once the gondola launched, the telescope’s pointing system remained stable enough to capture highly resolved images of the Sun.
The DFS team is also in the process of creating pods that will be attached beneath the wings of the NSF/NCAR Gulfstream-V (GV). Based on an idea originated and patented by DFS manager Jack Fox, DFS engineer Steve Rauenbuehler, and EOL Research Application Facility’s Mark Lord, the pods can carry up to an additional 800 pounds of scientific instruments. These innovative, tear-drop-shaped pods are designed with a detachable middle portion that is easily accessible from beneath the wing. When pod-mounted instruments are employed, more room is available on board for additional personnel or instruments⎯a critical function in a plane where space is at a premium. Alternatively, instrumentation can be attached directly to the pod to gather data during flights.
Whether a project requires creating housings or towers for field instruments, making inlets that don't contaminate the sample, or designing and manufacturing the GV's pods, the DFS crew of designers, engineers and instrument makers has proved time and again that they’re up for any task.
