Operating with a skilled staff of over 30 people, the Marine Science Development Center offers the following services:
Machining, cnc (computer numerical controlled) and manual
Fabrication – in house and remote location
Worldwide shipping
Let our engineering team turn your concept into reality.
From basic concept to finished, tested, delivered, instrument, all responsibility is under one roof. Our engineering team can design any type of mechanical device, transforming vague descriptions like “It does such and such but I don’t know how”, or a crayon-on-the-back-of-an-envelope sketch into a working instrument complete with power supplies, motor controls, and basic electronics. We design it, build it, test it, and teach you how to use it. No idea is too “out there.” We hear more unlikely ideas every week, and we can usually make them work, and work well.
Initial consultation on the feasibility of your idea is free.
Our engineering department uses Solidworks CAD software to design, validate, and perform stress analysis. In addition to Solidworks, we also gladly accept Autocad, Pro engineer, and other files.
Sample engineered designs
Here are a few typical designs for research instruments. They are all Solidworks files.
The first is a “ruggedized” mass spectrometer for use aboard ship in atmospheric chemistry research.
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The second device is a “laser scaler” used by a diver conducting fish population studies to measure giant black sea bass size non-invasively by illuminating the animals with green laser spots a known distance apart. Video taken during illumination enables the researcher to measure the specific animal size without interfering with the animal’s normal activity.
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Equipped with the latest state-of- the-art computer controlled machines in a brand new facility, our shop is as new as next week, but the personnel are old hands with a lifetime of experience - it’s an ideal combination. It is hard to imagine a similar sized shop being more well rounded in terms of equipment, and this is why we can offer “do it all” solutions to our clients, without the need to rely on outside vendors who just cause problems.
A partial list of our machining equipment includes-
Lathes, both cnc and manual, with turning capacities up to 33” diameter X 120” long. Shorter parts up to 60” diameter may be turned. Five of our lathes are hollow spindle dual chuck designs with thru spindle capacities up to 12” diameter. These lathes are particularly well suited to pressure case manufacture, and the machining of very long parts.
Mills, including vertical, horizontal, large open bed, knee, enclosed vertical machining centers, and high precision boring mills, with travel (cutting area) capacity up to 30” X 30” X 60”. Very long or awkward parts can be accommodated.
Full grinding shop including surface grinders and a universal cylindrical tool and cutter grinder, tool post grinders, and the usual pedestal grinders and sanding machines.
Water jet cutting machine
Wire EDM
Presses- various
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Any type of custom fabrication is within our ability.
We do forming, cnc pipe bending, oxy fuel cutting, plasma cutting, shearing, sawing, sheet metal bending and fabrication, MIG, TIG, stick, spot, and oxy fuel welding. We also have the equipment and capability to perform flame spray, heat treating, grit blasting, and forging, and have the equipment and experience to perform remote fabrication.
We build sea going gear, clean ultra high vacuum hardware fabrication, as well as general fabrication.
Our welding equipment list includes (6) TIG machines, (4) MIG machines, (6) stick machines, gas engine powered welding and air compressing machines, cnc heat treating ovens, (3) surface plates, and much more. Our fabrication shop has its own machine tools to enable timely, quality, part fabrication.
Our welders are X-ray certified to weld all common metals including low alloy steels, stainless steels, aluminum, titanium and bronzes. Other certifications available upon request.
“Seawater qualified” fabrications are their specialty.
We have the equipment and the experienced personnel to do our own heat treating, and the testing equipment to inspect the result.
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In another building we have our quality control department. In this purpose dedicated temperature controlled environment our full time inspector certifies every outgoing part, or it isn’t shipped. The inspection department has its own measuring tools, all new, and always currently calibrated. The granite surface plate in this room is a 4’ X 8’ “AA laboratory grade” plate, flat to < 50 millionths of an inch corner to corner. There are 5 other granite surface plates located throughout the main shop.
Assembly
We can properly assemble your parts or complete system and supply inspection documentation. One assembly or thousands.
We offer electronics assembly NASA certified for space flight.
Testing
Our staff can rig a testing regime for any type of device. We have access to salt/fresh water deep tanks, boats, a pier with hoists, ultra high vacuum testing equipment, electronic test instrumentation and an in house instrumented pressure test facility, the capacities for which are:
0-10,500 psi 9-1/4” diameter X 29” long
0-10,500 psi 14” diameter X 72” long
0-2,000 psi 19” diameter X 29” long
We are also equipped to do our own hardness testing.
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No hardware needs proper surface coating as much as sea going hardware.
After a lifetime of experience (not all of it good experience) we have developed a network of suppliers to provide surface coatings such as electrostatic powdercoat and hard anodizing that meet our tough criteria. We have the knowledge to specify the right coatings, and the vendors to correctly apply them. This took a long time to set reliably in place, and you, the customer, can now enjoy the fruits of our frustration.
High vacuum
With extensive experience designing and fabricating ultra high vacuum hardware for everything from atmospheric chemistry research to X-ray crytallography, we can handle your application. Let us discuss you needs with you, we can probably save you money.
Field support
Our personnel have traveled to the far corners of the globe in support of shop built experiments. From high altitude mountain peaks to install astronomical instruments, to Antarctica for the launch of X-ray astronomy helium balloon experiments, and of course going to sea to deploy oceanographic instruments, no location is too far, too cold, too rough, or too difficult.
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