HRH The Prince of Wales opens Tecan facility

His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, recently performed the opening ceremony for a prestigious new £2million purpose-built 'micro-structure' manufacturing facility at the headquarters of Tecan Limited in Weymouth, Dorset. During his visit, the Prince praised the company's dynamic approach in the development and manufacture of micro-structures at the highly refined new unit. "It is a real pleasure to have the opportunity to visit this new facility and to congratulate your Chairman Paul Cane and his staff on this remarkable achievement," said His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. Within the new 8,000sq/ft facility, a wide range of micro-sized metal parts and ultra-fine feature metal parts will be produced for the world's most discerning companies, to be used in demanding next-generation applications in areas such as electronics, optical, medical and aerospace. The new building houses offices, stores facilities and a state-of-the-art class 1000 cleanroom, within which are a number of class 100 areas.These highly clean areas ensure the provision of particle-free environments where components with sub-micron features can be repeatedly and consistently fabricated. The company has developed state-of-the-art electroforming production techniques to make such cost-effective accuracy possible. "This new facility throws the flood gates of opportunity wide open, for design engineers across all industries - providing affordable, technologically advanced, micro-engineered parts. It represents an important and exciting step in Tecan's continuing development, as a world-leading technology driven company", said Paul Cane, Tecan's founder and chairman. Specialised electroforming equipment, installed in the new class 1000 and class 100 cleanrooms, includes an unusually large, 12-inch (300mm x 300mm) Mask Aligner which ensures exceptional accuracy, of less than one micron, across its operating surface.