Lasermet has equipped Manchester's £40m Photon Science Institute with laser safety equipment. The institute has brought together more than 100 world-class scientists from a variety of disciplines to provide a centre of excellence for photon science. It offers an impressive array of lasers and associated instrumentation that provide, in one facility, a comprehensive range of wavelengths, laser fluences, powers and temporal characteristics.
Key to ensuring laser safety at this new 30-laboratory building was to find a specialist company who could offer a complete turn-key solution, which would not only meet rigorous safety standards, but also allow the flexibility to partition and configure each laboratory space as needed.
Dr Mark Dickinson, who has been actively involved with the institute from the beginning, said: 'With such a variety of lasers under one roof, safety considerations have obviously been paramount. We have also needed to ensure that we have the flexibility to reconfigure experimental working areas as future demands change, while still maintaining the same high degree of safety.'
He added: 'We selected Lasermet to work with us as they offered us the most cost-effective all-round solution to our requirements.'
The institute includes a number of dedicated laboratories and some larger open-plan flexible laboratory spaces to accommodate all the research scientists using the facility and their changing experimental requirements.
In the dedicated laboratories Lasermet installed full length heavy-duty laser-blocking curtains up to 7.5m wide and integrated them with fixed interlock systems and laser beam shutters. A fixed laser-blocking curtain 25m across was used to divide the largest open-plan laboratory area into two central facilities.
For the open-plan laboratory spaces Lasermet supplied 56 heavy-duty laser-blocking screens, which are designed to fully enclose working areas by connecting a number of them together into four-sided enclosures. Portable versions of the Lasermet interlock system were supplied for ease-of-use with the enclosures. These are operated by simply plugging them in close by and changing the interlocks as required.
