Almost exactly a year after the project kick-off we have finalized the upgrade and refurbishment of an x-ray mirror alignment and integration machine for our scientific customer from Italy. The machine was originally build by ADS International s.r.l in the framework of mirror development programs for the IXO mission (which later became the ATHENA x-ray observatory).

After a considerable storage period, It will now be repurposed for other activities, most notably to build x-ray mirror modules for IAXO, the international observatory for Axion research that will be located at DESY in Hamburg, Germany.

The scope of our work included the refurbishment of most of the periphery of the machine, including control computer and networking infrastructure, as well as the installation of three new metrology systems:

• 8 channel capacitive sensing system for mirror mold alignment and closed loop control
• Dust sensing deflectometer to aid in cleanliness control during mirror shell preparation
• Integrated mirror deflectometer to quantify integration related figure distortion (e.g. due to adhesive shrink)

Further more most of the cable harness and interfaces of the machine has been reworked to improve operations, and a new air filtration system has been integrated.