OPEN MIND Technologies, a leading developer of CAD/CAM software solutions worldwide, has announced that Ramco Machine, LLC (Rowley, MA U.S.A) is helping to impact the future of space exploration by using hyperMILL® CAM software and 5-axis machining to make parts for an advanced NASA satellite mission. The mission, named Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), is credited to discovering its first circumbinary planet – a world orbiting two stars.

In 2017, Ramco was contracted by MIT Lincoln Laboratory (Lincoln, MA U.S.A.) to fabricate the critical camera mount brackets for an important NASA TESS satellite mission. NASA’s TESS mission is designed to explore and survey nearby bright stars to analyze planets, both smaller and larger than earth, as the planets circle their host stars and the earth orbits the sun. In 2018, a solar powered in-space satellite equipped with four ultrasensitive cameras was launched aboard a two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on its way beyond earth’s solar system to outer space. The four-camera system developed at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory monitors the brightness of more than 200,000 stars and searches for minute drops in brightness as the planets transit in front of each star.

Making the mounting brackets required machining Invar, a nickel-iron alloy with a low thermal expansion coefficient, allowing it to meet the rigors of launch and enabling it to compensate for the extreme temperature swings of outer space. The mounting bracket has exceedingly tight tolerances. The central rib’s thickness is .050″ +/- .001″, perpendicularity between surfaces is held to .001″ and the bracket’s two opposing surfaces must be in-line with each other to within .001″.

To cut Invar and achieve the required tolerances, Ramco used a hyperMILL® generated 5-axis profile finish tool path. By doing this, an accurate finish across each part was achieved, keeping them within these very tight tolerances.

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About OPEN MIND Technologies AG

Headquartered in Germany, OPEN MIND is one of the world’s leading developers of powerful CAD/CAM solutions for machine and controller-independent programming. The company develops optimized CAD/CAM solutions that include many innovative features unavailable elsewhere, to deliver significantly higher performance in both programming and machining. Strategies such as 2.5D, 3D, as well as 5-axis milling, mill/ turning, and machining operations such as HSC and HPC, are efficiently designed into the hyperMILL® CAM system, providing maximum user benefit and compatibility with all current CAD solutions and extensive programming automation. OPEN MIND strives to be the best, most innovative CAD/CAM developer in the world, and has earned the top five ranking in the CAD/CAM industry according to the 2019 NC Market Analysis Report by CIMdata. OPEN MIND CAD/CAM solutions meet and exceed the requirements of the most demanding industries such as automotive, tool and mold manufacturing, production machining, medical, job shops, energy and aerospace industries, and is represented in all key markets of Asia, Europe and the Americas. OPEN MIND is a Mensch und Maschine Company.