Case Studies

Car fuel injection systems, medical pumps and high-end watches are all examples of applications where smaller mechanisms have supplied improved performance and enhanced customer satisfaction. In advanced products, reducing the size of mechanical parts and introducing greater manufacturing precision improves reliability, durabil...

Producing circuits on silicon wafers relies on high-precision manufacturing processes that assemble electronic components to form multiple complete circuits on a single wafer. These are later separated into individual units for device assembly. To improve productivity and efficiency, wafer manufacturers are investigating method...

Ever smaller components in high value manufacturing industries, such as automotive and aerospace, require highly accurate machine tools to produce very precise features, sometimes at the nanoscale. Such tools make small, complex movements in a 3D space, known as ‘six degrees of freedom’. But their accuracy can drift due to temp...

Cataract surgery saves millions of people from blindness and is one of the most common surgical procedures in the EU, with 4.2 million operations performed a year. To restore sight surgeons replace the eye’s lens with a synthetic replica, but to achieve the best possible outcome this must be carefully matched to the dimensions ...

In Europe, there are 60 million diabetics requiring insulin injections several times a day using single use needles. Making frequent injections is painful, but discomfort can be reduced by using smaller needles with internal dimensions close to the diameter of a human hair. Ensuring an even insulin flow through the needle relie...

Paper manufacturers must produce paper to consistent standards to stay competitive, since uniform paper thickness reduces ink use, saving their customers money. To produce paper, large round rollers turn pulp into sheets of defined thickness. These rollers develop scratches and dents over time, so are periodically reground to g...