OREANDA-NEWS. Shvabe Holding Company has manufactured a 3,120 mm mirror for a telescope at the Altai Optical and Laser Observation Center. A new system was used in the manufacturing process to ensure optics finishing quality control in real time to a higher standard of accuracy.

Shvabe engineers and developers are constantly implementing new advanced technologies, thereby contributing to development of the optics industry, the holding company said in a press release. A new quality control system developed by the Lytkarino Optical Glass Factory, a Shvabe subsidiary, will find wide use in production of large ground- and space-based optical instruments.

The key difference the new system offers is its use of an automatic system to process quality control data and data on the shape of optical surfaces in parts up to 6 meters across in the final stage of manufacturing. The system controls the multi-functional tool for optics polishing and grinding through software.

The system is capable of automatic information processing on the surface contour, as well as calculating, refining and forecasting the optimal operating modes.

The Altai Space Center telescope with a 3.12-meter main mirror will be used to obtain detailed images of low earth orbit spacecraft. It will be also used to address a broad range of objectives that have to do with use and exploration of outer space, including those addressed by the Russian Federal Space Agency in its operations under the Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee for Space Debris. One of the focus areas is detecting and mapping pieces of space debris to issue alerts of dangerously close approaches of these fragments to active spacecraft