Mechanical Engineering

NTF Mechanical Engineering and Development Team

The NTF Mechanical Engineering and Development Team designs, develops, and fabricates experimental equipment and core diagnostics components for the two-terawatt Zebra pulsed-power generator, and all NTF high-energy lasers.  The groups is composed of Engineers, Technicians, and Students working in the field of Mechanical Engineering.

Responsibilities include: 

• The mechanical design of hardware and diagnostics for experiments.
• The mechanical design of components for the Zebra generator, and the Leopard and Cheetah lasers.
• Deploying of experiments on to Zebra, Leopard or Cheetah.
• Manufacturing of prototypes and low-scale production.
• Supporting of ongoing experiments
• The design and maintenance of vacuum systems.
• The design and maintenance of vacuum control systems.
• Training and teaching students.

Available tools:

• Designing tool - ProE Wildfire parametric solid modeler
• Milling machines - (3) manual and one retrofitted CNC mills,
• Lathes (3)
• Drill presses (3) and other small machine tools.
• Large Jobs - The NTF mechanical group can employ the CNC lathe and CNC mill from the Physics Department shop at no extra cost
• Welding capabilities available for vacuum parts