Establishing a beam centrifuge facility at the Institute of Technology, Sligo, Ireland

A new beam centrifuge facility has recently been established at the Institute of Technology, Sligo in Ireland. The centrifuge, designed and manufactured by Thomas Broadbent & Sons, is a 9 g-tonne machine, that can spin two strongboxes at either end of a 0.75 m beam rotor at a maximum (effective radius) acceleration level of 300 g. Although the centrifuge is relatively small, the functionality is at least equivalent to the successful approach of using a drum centrifuge in beam mode, where a number of strongboxes are located within the drum channel. The design of the centrifuge is such that the beam rotor can be interchanged with a drum channel so that the centrifuge can operate either in beam or drum mode. Thomas Broadbent & Sons are currently finalising a drum channel and tool table design suitable for retrofitting to the existing machine.