News COMMENT


Welcome to the May issue of Instrumentation Monthly.


You now have until July to submit your nominations for the 2025 Instrumentation & Electronics


Awards. The event is the night of the year for the instrumentation sector so make sure your company or product is in with a chance of winning by making your nomination now. Find out more on page 8.


Victoria White, Editor E A


ELECTRO RENT APPOINTS NICOLAI MORESCO AS VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER FOR EMEA


lectro Rent has announced the appointment of Nicolai Moresco as vice president and general Manager for EMEA.


Moresco brings more than 25 years of inter- national leadership experience in sales, strategy, and operations, most recently serving as SVP & GM for Central and Southern Europe at Dell Technologies. This executive appointment underscores Electro Rent’s ongoing commitment to delivering cost-effec- tive, flexible, and scalable technology access through its unique one-source model—encompassing rental, flexible financing, sales of new and pre-owned equipment, and asset optimisation services. Moresco is widely recognised for driving trans- formational go-to-market strategies and delivering measurable outcomes across hardware, software, and services. He has consistently demonstrated success in building high-performing teams, enhancing customer satisfaction, and driving growth


FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND TEST FACILITY COULD HELP SPACE INDUSTRY DODGE A BULLET


small piece of outer space recreated in a basement in Glasgow could help ensure that a key enabling technology for future space missions won’t lead to deadly ‘rifle bullets’ of space junk circling the Earth. Researchers at the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engi- neering have built the NextSpace Testrig - the world’s first dedicated facility for testing the structural integrity of materials that will be 3D printed in space. The NextSpace Testrig was developed by the University’s Dr Gilles Bailet in partnership with The Manufacturing Technology Centre, supported by £253,000 in funding from the UK Space Agency (UKSA). The facility, which uses a specially-constructed vacuum chamber capable of gener- ating temperatures between -150°C and +250°C to create space-like conditions on Earth, is designed to help support the developing field of space manufacturing. Space manufacturing aims to radically change how objects and materials are sent into orbit. Instead of carrying complete devices like solar reflectors into space on rockets, specially-designed 3D printers could create structures more cheaply directly in orbit instead.


Several experiments have already sent prototype 3D printers into orbit and metal parts have been 3D-printed by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Until now, no research facility has been dedicated to ensuring that poly- mers, ceramics and metals printed in orbit will be able to withstand the extreme physical strains they will face in space.


Objects in space are subjected to a hard vacuum that cycles rapidly between extremes of temperature - conditions that can wreak havoc on the structure of 3D-printed materials which aren’t rigorously constructed.


Imperfections such as tiny bubbles or poorly melted sections that might be inconse- quential on Earth can behave differently in space.


Those flaws could cause 3D-printed objects to shatter, scattering dangerous fragments into orbit which would contribute to the growing problem of ‘space junk’ – pieces of debris from defunct satellites, previous space missions, or collisions between human-made objects in orbit. Dr Bailet said: “3D printing is a very promising technology for allowing us to build very complex structures directly in orbit instead of taking them into space on rockets. It could enable us to create a wide variety of devices, from lightweight communications antennas to solar reflectors to structural parts of spacecraft or even human habitats for missions to the Moon and beyond. “However, the potential also comes with significant risk, which will be


Instrumentation Monthly May 2025


magnified if efforts to start 3D printing in space are rushed out instead of being properly tested. Objects move very fast in orbit, and if a piece of a poor- ly-made structure breaks off it will end up circling the Earth with the velocity of a rifle bullet. If it hits another object like a satellite or a spacecraft, it could cause catastrophic damage, as well as increase the potential of cascading problems as debris from any collisions cause further damage to other objects. “The NextSpace TestRig is open to academic colleagues, researchers and commercial clients from around the world to help them ensure that any materials they plan to 3D print in space will work safely. We also expect that the data we’ll be gathering in the years to come, which can’t be replicated anywhere else in the world at the moment, will help regulatory authorities to make safety standards for in-space manufacturing, informed by real-world testing.”


The testing facility features a unique magazine system that can autonomously test multiple samples in a single cycle, making it significantly more efficient than traditional testing methods. The system can apply up to 20 kilonewtons of force (equivalent to 2,000 kilograms) to break samples and analyse their properties in vacuum conditions matching those of space. It can also subject samples to cycles of extreme tempera- tures mimicking those they would face in orbit.


University of Glasgow www.gla.ac.uk 5


through strategic channel and partner ecosystems.


“I am thrilled to join Electro Rent at such a pivotal time,” said Moresco, Vice President and General Manager, EMEA. “Test equipment users across Europe are


under increasing pressure to innovate rapidly and cost-effectively. Electro Rent’s one-source model— built around rental, flexible financing, new and used purchase, and asset optimisation—offers a smarter way to access the technology they need, and in the case of rental, without the burden of ownership”. I look forward to working closely with our customers and partners to deliver shared value and accelerate growth.”


Electro Rent www.electrorent.com


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