VANCOUVER, July 2, 2015 –The Honourable James Moore, Minister of Industry for Canada, announced on June 30 that Dynamic Structures, a division of Empire Industries Ltd., will receive up to $70 million to build the precision-steel enclosure of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), the world’s largest earth-based telescope.
The TMT enclosure is one of several key deliverables that Canada will be contributing to the TMT partnership as outlined in the April 6, 2015 press release when Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada will provide $243.5 million over 10 years to support Canada’s participation in TMT.
The enclosure design and manufacturing phase is expected to be executed between 2015 and 2018. Subsequent phases of the Canadian enclosure project, including shipping the enclosure to the project site, supervision of the enclosure’s installation, and commissioning of the structure, may be added later as the as the overall project develops.
Dynamic Structures, based in Port Coquitlam, BC, designs, builds and installs complex mechanical systems and specialty structures for world-class telescopes, theme park rides and bridges. Dynamic Structures has designed an innovative calotte shape for the TMT enclosure. The design significantly reduces the size and improves the speed of the enclosure, to effectively shield the telescope and instruments from temperature variations, unbalanced wind forces, snow and ice. The enclosure will rotate and open directly over the telescope. When completed, the enclosure will be over 18 stories high and be assembled from over hundreds of thousands of parts.
“This is a tremendously exciting time for our Dynamic Structures business unit,” said Guy Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of Empire Industries Ltd. “It is an honour to be selected to design and manufacture one of the most sophisticated moving structures on the planet. Dynamic Structures has been actively working on TMT since it was first conceived over ten years ago. We are proud to be selected to see it through to completion.”