Picha Ruenarrom, BEng
Engineer · Cat's servant · Greek yogurt homemade vendor
- Affiliation
- National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (Public Organization)
- Role in team
- Mechanical engineer · jig and fixture design, Single-Point Diamond Turning (SPDT) operation
- Since
- 2025
Picha Ruenarrom is a mechanical engineer at the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT), where she works in precision engineering and advanced manufacturing. Her primary responsibilities include mechanical design, CNC machining, and the operation of Single-Point Diamond Turning (SPDT) systems for the fabrication of ultra-precision reflective surfaces and optical components.
She holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering with second-class honors from Chiang Mai University. Her technical experience spans precision manufacturing and optical metrology, including the use of 3D profilers, confocal microscopes, and laser interferometers for surface characterization and measurement. She is particularly interested in the development of additive manufacturing and the fabrication of ultra-precision components for astronomical instrumentation and optical-engineering applications.
Projects
SPDT Engineering, Assembly, and Laser Metrology Laboratory
Thailand's first ultra-precision reflective-surface laboratory: 5-axis single-point diamond turning, surface metrology, and a complete design-to-metrology production line for metallic and freeform optics.
DARTS alignment and slit-viewing mirrors
Diamond-turned slit-viewing mirrors and slit masks for DARTS, the robotic transient spectrograph NARIT is building for Lick Observatory.
Additively manufactured mirrors for space missions with UK ATC
Can we 3D-print a mirror? Diamond turning and testing of additively manufactured aluminum mirror substrates for space missions, with the UK Astronomy Technology Centre.
Mirrors for the TSC 6U CubeSat telescope
Primary and secondary mirrors, machined in-house by diamond turning, for the Thai Space Consortium's 3U and 6U CubeSat space telescopes.
Freeform Zerodur mirrors for ELT/HARMONI
Proposed upgrade of the diamond-turning line to 700 mm and to low-expansion glass (Zerodur, ULE, fused silica), with Oxford's HARMONI team and ESO, aimed at ELT-class freeform optics.