Thomas Keating strengthens Wire EDM capabilities

Thomas Keating has made further investment with the acquisition of an Agie AC Progress VP2 Wire EDM. Being sited in our temperature controlled area and having Ø0.05mm wire technology, we can satisfy the ever increasing demands of the injection mould, defence, scientific and space industries. AGIE AC Progress VP2 wire EDM at Thomas Keating Ltd.

Congratulations to Nick Stone and Thierry Chapman (November 2014)

Nick Stone and Thierry have both passed NVQ Engineering Level 2 and will be moving onto to study for NVQ Engineering Level 3.

JET Antenna upgrade nears installation

A decade after making an in-vessel, Tritium-containing, antenna for ECE and reflectometer measurements on the JET Tokomak, TK has been making  new front optics, which will allow a different area of the plasma to be probed. Designed on our PRO/E Creo Gaussian-beam enabled CAD system, TK's 3D printer was used to check the general configuration of the part. Manufacture - including some tricky spark erosion -  is now complete and we expect installation will occur before the end of 2014 The new antenna front-end and the 3D printed sample.    

MIRO: Water vapour from 67P/C-G

Well over a decade ago, QMC Instruments made a small free standing wire polarizing grid which JPL's MIRO instrument on the Rosetta mission uses to separate incoming radiation into two channels: Two radiometers have been looking at 188 GHz (1.6 mm) and 562 GHz (0.5 mm). The lower band provides continuum measurements, giving subsurface temperature measurements, the higher frequency channel cover vibration lines which include H2O, CO, CH3OH, and NH3 and the isotopes H217O and H218O   Worth reading the ESA MIRO Blog here   Image thanks to ESA MIRO has been measuring the rate of Water Loss from 67P/C-G.  At its peak we are told here that the comet is losing 5 Li...

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New apprentices join Thomas Keating (September 2014)

Thomas Keating welcomes Josh Martin to begin his toolmaking apprenticeship. First year training will cover the manufacture of personal equipment using traditional skills to our proven designs dating back to the early 1940's.

Student Outreach 2014

In 2013 Thomas Keating stepped up its efforts to provide students who have Physics and Engineering in their sights  - both at school and at university -  with an experience of industrial life.  We have continued this into 2014. Vicky Whiting is an Engineering undergraduate at the University of Bath and joined TK for a month in summer 2014.  She worked on a range of projects, including: a study of the uses of a new 3D printer at TKdesigning a new support for the electronics boards used in the Support Units in the Pro/Engineer CAD package and printed themprinting a model of an upgrade to a quasi-optical in-vessel plasma diagnostics for the Joint European Taurus (JET)designi...

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