|
**Shane Santi,
Dream's founder and owner, has been studying optics since 1994.
He was a professional photographer for 13 years, using everything
from 4x5 large-format to numerous medium formats to 35mm and
specialized rotating lens panoramic slit cameras which utilized
a curved film plane. This included over a decade of traditional
black & white darkroom experience, which taught him that
a 0.5°F difference in the developer temperature would show
tonal differences in the fiber prints. This reinforced a concept
he had noticed his whole life; small details matter, when you
are open to noticing them, and they are affecting
the final outcome. |
|
**He's been
designing, building and taking things apart since he was in single
digits. Shane's had a life-long obsession with the mechanics
of structures, space, flight, technology and generally understanding
why things tick. He lives in the details because of his desire
to know why, which leads to an unquenchable desire for discovery.
Each time a question is answered (discovery), it becomes knowledge,
which leads to deeper questions. Over time this leads to a deep
knowledge. He willingly shares this knowledge because it promotes
Shane's goal of moving opto-mechanical structures into the modern
era, since higher performance means greater scientific discoveries.
This affinity to details and performance has made Dream's composite
work desireable to other industries as well; bio-medical, precision
housings, rocketry, etc. |
|
"Hello Shane, I can't
think of anyone who has delved as deeply into the mechanics of
telescopes as you have." |
|
- Dream customer |
|
|
**After reading
numerous scientific papers (similar
to 3rd
paragraph Answer 2
links) quantifying the much larger
than expected performance losses associated with solid mirrors
used in dynamic temperature environments and seeing the unique
qualities of carbon fiber used by other high-tech industries
(jets, off-shore race
boats, F1 race cars, etc.), Shane
formed Dream in 2003, for two main reasons; |
|
1.) to combine the complementary technologies
of modern carbon fiber
with lightweight mirrors and |
|
2.) to solve the nearly century-old problem
of print-through in lightweight mirrors. |
|
**He wanted
to use carbon fiber, especially carbon fiber skinned sandwich
core (CFSC - see photo
& description to the right)
to produce athermal telescopes and use it more extensively than
he had ever seen. In moderate to larger diameter telescope systems
steel, Invar and aluminum are the most commonly used materials.
Since any high-density component can create thermal and mechanical
losses (self-weight deflection) to system performance, it was not difficult
to connect the dots, that CFSC was an ideal material. One of
the most important areas is the use of lightweight, high stiffness
carbon fiber mirror mounts that more closely match the mirrors,
providing higher and more consistent performance as both telescope
angle and temperature change. He knew that a lighter, more mechanically
& thermally stable total system could; slew faster, hold
optical alignment tolerances better and be far closer to thermal
stealth. All features that promote, instead of degrade, total
system performance. |
|
**Shane recognized
that he could take aerospace composite technology and optimized
it further for the unique & extreme thermo and mechanical
tolerances that are faced in modern opto-mechanical and electro-optical
instruments. |
|
****- low
mass, |
|
****- low CTE and |
|
****- extreme
stiffness. |
|
 |
|
|
**In 2002
and 2003 he quickly discovered that standard composite companies
had little to no knowledge of optical systems, little to no knowledge
of stiffness (not strength)
and the extreme requirements that
come with them, as well as little desire to work with such a
demanding customer. This began a long series of unexpected trials
where Dream was forced to take over more and more aspects of
the systems, in order to control and achieve the quality desired.
The benefit of the long years of R&D can be seen in Dream's
in-house designed & produced stainless steel inserts, to the extreme rugged performance (see
CFSC screwdriver video) of Dream's
advanced composites. Chasing real-world performance has to be
driven by a person who understands why each parameter needs such
critical control. Otherwise no company will invest in the additional
time, effort and expertise that is required. Over the past 15
years Dream has compiled a team of experts in numerous fields
that share Shane's desire to chase real-world performance. |
|
**As soon
as space was leased in 2003 Shane designed the largest composite
oven that Dream still uses today. It is 12' wide, 6' deep, 6'
high and was upgraded in 2013 after a decade of use, going from
10k watts to 33k watts. It can maintain a tight temperature tolerance
of +/-1°F, which is roughly one magnitude tighter than normal
aerospace composite ovens. Dream's resin content is 20-40x more
tightly controlled than standard pre-pregs from a decade ago
and 2-4x more tightly controlled than industry-leading space-qualified
prepregs today. This is driven by the incredibly tight tolerances
of high-performance optical system, as well as Dream's relentless
focus on actual and measureable performance, which requires unusually high
consistency in the parts. |
|
**Companies
are more recently using open-market carbon fiber in one or two
components of opto-mechanical systems but buyer beware as these
"carbon fiber" systems often use only 5-10% carbon
fiber for the structures, while 90-95% remain metals. Look carefully
and ask direct, pointed questions like, what percentage of the
structural weight is carbon fiber? Is the carbon fiber actually
taking the load or is it only cosmetic? How many components use
CFSC? Dream has always used its engineered carbon fiber,
especially CFSC, extensively in the structures
it produces. We are currently using them in rocketry and other
industries as well, due to Dream's
expertise with CFSC and the large performance gains they offer. |
|
Dream consistently averages 95% carbon fiber and only 5%
metals for the weight of the structures in its athermal telescopes.
(no optics) |
|
|
|
**Shane began
researching lightweight mirrors of all types nearly 25 years
ago. This was brought on by his interest in understanding seeing, since it is a variable (detail) that degrades
system performance. "Seeing" can come from numerous
sources and each source is often complex; mirror, telescope, observatory, ground effect, etc.
Understanding each source to a deeper
level has allowed Dream's products
to break new performance grounds. One of Dream's 0.4m
telescopes is outperforming all other
telescopes in a mulit-year NASA program, with some of those telescopes
being as large as 1m, proving what Ritchey showed 100 years ago;
quality of the total installed system matters far more
than aperture, when the other systems are ignoring deeper level
details. |
 |
|
Dream's full opto-mechanical
systems attain superior mechanical
and thermal stability by combining Dream's other core technology;
zeroDELTA™
engineered, lightweight mirrors. This provides higher
resolution, greater throughput, less
down time and virtually no maintenance.
By design Dream's in-house
technologies produce athermal telescopes. |
|
|
|
**Dream's tailored composites offer
extreme stiffness and produce an athermal instrument when combined
with Dream's zeroDELTA™
engineered, lightweight mirrors. This makes them ideal
for mirror mounts, including for zero-expanion
mirror materials. This can eliminate the need for complex flexures,
while offering higher performance. Dream's systems achieve the
same extreme level of performance day after day, year after year,
while having the lowest maintenance. What many have considered
an atmospheric
limit, may in fact be traditional mirror seeing. |
|
|
Other
Carbon Fiber Parts |
|
biomedical backboard, rigid backboard,
carbon fiber board |
|
carbon fiber structures for space,
carbon fiber space structures, cyanate ester, space qualified
carbon fiber |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The above strut is a prime example of the substantial
gains that Dream achieves with its optimized carbon fiber skinned
sandwich core parts. The strut
is 55.7" long, weighs only 1.85 pounds and is shown in a
3-point bend arrangement under 195 lbs of load. |
|
|
|
|
rocketry, IRAC, Spaceport America
Cup, soundingrocket.org |
|
|
|
|
|
Dream's carbon fiber is also superb for zero-expansion
mirror materials like Astro-Sittal, Clear-Ceram, fused silica,
ULE, Zerodur, etc. Click below to see a carbon fiber structure
for a 25" Cassegrain that used ULE mirrors. |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Connection points in any opto-mechanical
or electro-optical system are often the cause of a loss in stiffness
and therefore performance. This
page shows the pull-out strength of
Dream's stainless steel inserts used within the Dream CFSC parts. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Your company does phenomenal work.
There is a lot of thought and heart that goes into your products.
Dream's engineering sets their lightweight mirrors apart from
competitors. Your engineering goes beyond the lightweight aspect.
You focus on actual performance!" |
|
- Ted Kamprath |
|
39 years in professional
optics, using everything from million dollar test rooms to 144"
Continuous Polishers. He's spent his career using the latest
in technologies, methods, materials & science to finish precision
optics. |
|
|
