Re: [ATM] Low Temperature Bonding

["Vladimir Galogaza" <vladimir.galogaza@zg.htnet.hr>]

Hi Don,

Manufacturing of the Gravity Probe B included  a quartz telescope
(For details see
http://einstein.stanford.edu/content/story_of_gpb/gpbsty6.html  )

Stanford guys used Van der Waals molecular forces for bonding its parts.
Quoting from html reference:

Optical Contacting: the Marriage of True Parts
Another factor in the telescope's exceptional stability is that its twenty
separate component parts are all held together by a technique known as
optical contacting. No cements, no mechanical attachments; instead, the
surfaces of it and the quartz block containing the gyroscopes are made so
flat and clean that they become permanently joined through molecular
adhesion, almost as if the entire structure had been sculpted out of one
massive chunk of fused quartz.

The GPB survived the launch proving that this bonding style is mechanically
reliable.

Vladimir.






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