Oerlikon Contraves

Andreas Herren

Saverio Sanvido

The optical bench (10) contains a bench structure (20) and at least two optical units (12, 14, 16) fastened to the bench structure (20), whose axes are essentially oriented at predetermined angles transversely in respect to the bench structure. The bench structure (20) has a receiving element (22, 24, 26) for each optical unit (12, 14, 16), in which an end section of the optical units is fastened. The remaining parts of the optical units (12, 14, 16) freely project away from the bench structure (20) in the direction of their axes (13, 15, 17). In a first variant, the receiving elements are connected by arms, which can be integrated into a thin plate. In a second variant, the optical bench has a radiation shielding plate (50) covering the area of the optical units (12, 14, 16), which is disposed on the side of the bench structure (20) facing away from the optical units (12, 14, 16) and preferably is resiliently fastened, so that bending or tilting of the radiation shielding plate (50) has no effect on the orientation of the axes (13, 15, 17). When using the optical bench (10) in a satellite of a telecommunications device in space, its size is determined by taking the occurring changing loads and the loads encountered during the start phase of the launch rocket into consideration.

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Benglen, Switzerland

Andreas Herren