Aerospace

Swedish fastener manufacturer BUMAX was selected to solve a potential galling issue in an adaptive secondary mirror for a NASA telescope located at the summit of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. A special variant of its high-performance DX 129 model was delivered within 24 hours to TNO to solve a manufacturing error in the adaptive secondary mirror structure.

The Dutch organisation TNO developed an adaptive secondary mirror for NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Hawaii. Following a manufacturing error that was discovered during the integration phase in the Netherlands, TNO required an immediate solution in order to proceed with the integration.

TNO turned to BUMAX and the company delivered critical fasteners to overcome the galling issues discovered in the assembly. Within 24 hours, BUMAX had supplied TNO with a special variant of its high-performance DX 129 model, known for its excellent strength, ductility and corrosion resistance, which solved the problem.

The BUMAX DX 129 EPK fasteners used for this application were a special variant of the BUMAX standard high-performance DX 129 product grade. DX 129 EPK benefits from even higher surface hardness and is this, BUMAX states, that makes them almost impervious to galling. DX129 EPK also has the advantage of lower surface roughness and a cleaner finish to the fasteners, which eliminates the need for any potential additional lubrication in applications where contamination or outgassing may be of concern.

“BUMAX really saved the day at a point in our project when it was critical that we had no delays,” says Matias Kidron, project manager space systems engineering at TNO. “The next day delivery of the screws was quite a feat and was greatly appreciated by our entire project team and enabled us to stick to our schedule.”