Special chains enable the precise alignment of a state-of-the-art telescope on La Palma.

High-precision movement without slippage thanks to the perfectly coordinated lantern gear drive system

Another challenge was the precision of the lantern gear drive: The sensitive telescope system consisting of the 400 square meter parabolic mirror and the 2,000 photodetectors must be moved without slippage at all times. Furthermore, the astronomy researchers needed an adjustment accuracy of <14 angular seconds. For your information: An angular second is the 3,600th part of one degree. Therefore, the drive specialists at Wippermann had to perfectly adapt the double roller chain and sprockets to each other.

An essential aspect for slip-free operation and precision is the perfect lantern gearing of the sprockets, which enable a positive drive without wrapping. For this purpose, a special tooth geometry of the sprockets was calculated by Wippermann's engineering department and the precise manufacturing with tightest tolerances was done on a state-of-the-art CNC machine. Thanks to the consulting and manufacturing expertise of the chain specialist Wippermann it was possible to manufacture an extremely powerful drive system for this unusual application. And other telescopes with this drive solution from Wippermann are already in the pipeline. This provides the astrophysicists involved in the CTA observatory all around the world the opportunity to take a very close look in the future: at active galactic nuclei, supernovae, pulsars, black holes and other phenomena in space.

^{Photos: Max-Planck-Institut für Physik München}