SKYVA

Vacuum Coating System for Large Astronomical Mirrors

Are you looking for a coating solution for large telescope mirrors? SKYVA coating systems were developed specifically for this application: they deposit homogeneous, highly reflective metal layers on large, curved substrates up to 8.4 m in diameter and are available in several chamber sizes. This enables scaling from small, through medium, to large aperture areas.

For maximum reflectance we rely on requirement-optimized ("enhanced") silver and aluminum coating systems. Silver offers the highest reflectance in the visible and near-infrared range but requires a precisely matched protective layer to ensure long-term stability and corrosion resistance. Aluminum provides very good reflectance across a broader spectrum including UV and is more robust in many applications.

SKYVA supports both coating materials — from "protected" or "enhanced" silver coatings to optimized, protected aluminum coatings — as well as multilayer systems that tailor reflectivity curves to your spectrum and ensure excellent layer uniformity even on curved surfaces.

Additionally, we offer the system optionally with a peripheral washing unit for cleaning the mirror prior to re-coating.

SKYVA sys­tems sup­port pro­tec­ted and en­hanced alu­min­um and sil­ver coat­ings, as well as ap­pli­ca­tion-spe­cif­ic mul­ti­lay­er sys­tems with tai­lored re­flec­tiv­i­ty cur­ves. Cus­tom­ized cham­ber di­men­sions, mir­ror fix­tures, and han­dling sys­tems en­able the equip­ment to be adap­ted to dif­fer­ent mir­ror ge­o­met­ries and pro­ject re­quire­ments, aligning with lo­cal in­dus­trial stan­dards and re­gional tech­ni­cal part­ner­ships.

Au­to­mat­ed pro­cess se­quences, ad­vanced con­trol sys­tems, recipe man­age­ment, fault di­ag­no­sis, and in­tu­i­tive hu­man-ma­chine in­ter­fac­es en­able re­pro­du­ci­ble coat­ing re­sults. Op­tional re­mote mon­i­tor­ing and con­trol sup­port ef­fi­cient op­er­a­tion and main­ten­ance, par­tic­u­lar­ly at re­mote ob­ser­va­to­ry sites. Pe­riph­er­al equip­ment, in­clud­ing mir­ror-clean­ing and mea­sure­ment sys­tems, is also avail­able, with dedicated en­gi­neer­ing and train­ing pro­grams for lo­cal op­er­a­tors.

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