New Beamline Instrumentation Division Supports Science in Large-Scale Research Facilities

The PI Group develops, produces and provides integration of positioning systems, including commissioning of complete endstations for experiments on beamlines.

Research into ever smaller particles and structures uses large-scale equipment such as synchrotron beam sources or free-electron lasers. An essential part of such facilities are complex positioning systems that assure high-precision and long-term stability for aligning samples and analytical systems.

PI has now combined its competences for experiments on accelerator beamlines in its Beamline Instrumentation Division. The division’s aim is to develop application-oriented solutions that go far beyond simply providing individual components. For this purpose, experts from the PI Beamline Instrumentation Division work closely together with universities and research centers. Here the experts from PI work on development projects and provide engineering services and system integration to complete instrumentation, including integration of third-party components such as cameras, detectors or additional positioning units.

Synergy Effects for Research
The Beamline Instrumentation Division is affiliated to the PI miCos GmbH and will be coordinated from there. Close interaction with PI's own development and production centers in Germany and worldwide guarantees the best possible precision positioning technology for the very special requirements of beam experiments.

The Beamline Instrumentation Division completes and supports worldwide the large distribution network of the PI Group with their longstanding recognized contacts.

PI in Brief
Over the last four decades, the PI Group with their headquarters in Karlsruhe, Germany, has developed into the leading manufacturer of positioning systems with accuracies in the range of only a few nanometers. With four company sites in Germany and ten sales and service offices abroad, the privately managed company operates globally.

More than 700 highly qualified employees all over the world enable the PI Group to fulfill almost any requirement from the area of innovative precision positioning technology. All key technologies are developed in-house. This allows the company to control every step of the process, from design right down to shipment: Precision mechanics and electronics as well as position sensors.

The PI miCos GmbH in Eschbach, Germany, joined the PI Group in 2011. The company is specialized in applications in the areas of ultrahigh vacuum, air bearings technology, linear motors, parallel-kinematic positioning systems with six degrees of freedom and engineering services for system integration.