We will not be surprising anyone when we say the last few years have seen dramatic increases in some material prices, which we have tried to help absorb for our customers as much as we can. Similarly, the sharp increase in energy prices from 2021/22 have been felt in our test house work.

Our main chamber day rates and standard outgassing charges have not changed since 2017 and 2018 respectively but for 2023 we will be adding a 10% increase to both the chamber day rate and outgassing charges. Please be aware that we will honour currently quoted work at the old rate, but new quotes for the end of 2022 and going into the new year will be at this new rate.

For our solar simulators which can be a much longer lead time it has been a challenge to keep up with the material price changes, particularly for key components. In 2023 we will be conducting an overhaul of our solar simulator range in terms of pricing and models available, so if you would like a quote for a system please be aware there may be some delay while this is done.

As always, we are hugely appreciative of our customers both new and old and are thankful for your understanding.

We have been monitoring the state of the UK power grid for many years and this year, as you will be undoubtedly be aware by now, several factors have coincided to produce a very uncertain future for the UK electrical grid in the near and medium term.

Obviously for a test-house which provides long-term testing ranging from a few days to even years, the prospect of outages be they planned or unplanned was not something we could simply accept. We understand that our customers have deadlines to meet and that completing their test at TS-Space Systems is usually a single step in a complicated and tightly scheduled process.

As such, in the spring of this year we began a process of investing in backup infrastructure to ensure we can continue working in even the worst of situations. We are installing an industrial UPS system which will be capable of seamlessly switching over and running all of our systems, simultaneously,  for just over 5 hours in the event of a power outage.

In the event that the outage is to last longer this gives us ample time to make the chambers safe in terms of holding vacuum and returning to a safe temperature. We have then invested in dedicated backup generators for each chamber system which we can then switch to, to continue running until the grid power is restored.

We have a very busy test work schedule already underway and booking up fort he first quarter of 2022 so if you are thinking of contacting us to discuss a test requirement, please get in touch sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment.

Finally, we will be conducting a complete overhaul of our simulator range this year to simplify some of the options available and streamline our manufacturing processes for our solar simulator builds. We will announce these changes on our website and social media accounts later in the year.

From all of us at TS-Space Systems, we wish you a Happy New Year and all the best for 2022!

The major, integral components of our solar simulators (enclosures, HMI lamp power supplies, custom optical filters and optical components) are all manufactured by UK companies in the UK. We design our power distribution and electonric  control systems in-house which are then wired by a UK company (in the UK). The simulators themselves are designed, built and tested by us in the UK and we have supplied companies and laboratories across the world.

For our in-house test chambers and facilities we design our own thermal control systems, thermal interface plates and shrouds. The manufacturing and finishing (plating, anodising etc.) of these parts is outsourced to UK machinists and engineering companies. Heating elements and cooling systems are all sourced from UK companies who manufacture in the UK. Final assembly and testing of the systems is, of course, conducted by ourselves.

As you can tell, we are serious about supporting UK manufacturing and working with UK companies for every aspect of our business and we are constantly looking to expand our contacts in this regard. If you are a UK manufacturer and you think your products could be of interest to us, please feel free to get in touch with us and let us know.

At the start of 2020 we took delivery of a new TVAC chamber which we had scheduled to come online mid 2020. However during the UK covid-19 response in March we undertook large scale improvements to our test house involving a new floor being poured and laid along with a complete re-wiring of the laboratory to support the additional equipment we have installed. This required a complete dismantling of all of our test chambers and equipment in order to clear the lab.

Due to this disruption, along with the increased test and manufacturing demand in the second half of the year, we have had to delay the commissioning of TVAC#3 into 2021. Work has continued on the machining of the thermal exchange plate and installation of the pumps on the chamber system. However final run-up and testing is not scheduled until the start of 2021. Once ready the additional chamber in our facility will increase throughput and reduce wait times for TVAC tests.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers who have either been using us for years or have just found is this year. We realise being busy is a very nice problem to have right now and so we thank you for choosing us for your test work.