Oral title: Mechanical Engineering in La Silla

Oral abstract: After 50 years being La Silla a leading observatory in Astronomy of the Southern 
Hemisphere, the Mechanical Engineering has significantly contributed to the development of the 
site.
During all these years many projects or actions that were required to improve or to solve problems 
during operation of the domes, telescopes and its instrumentation required the close participation of 
this area of Engineering.
The presentation will cover 30+ years of the Mechanical Engineering, between 1982 and 2013, in La 
Silla, time that the author worked on the site.

II. Mechanical Engineering in La Silla
The Mechanical Team in La Silla started as part of what is was called the TRS (Technical Research 
Support) that in its earlier years had Electronics, Optics, Software and Operations as other groups 
part of the TRS. The TRS was one of the pillars that formed La Silla together with Astronomy, 
Maintenance and Administration.
After several reorganizations, the TRS became the Engineering group and the Mechanics was part 
of it.
La Silla has developed in different areas where projects have improved and optimized the 
mechanics of telescopes and instruments in their maintenance and operations. 
More than 1000 projects and designs were developed by the Mechanical Group of La Silla during the 
first 35 years.
During La Silla history the installation of telescopes or new instrumentation was an important part of 
the participation of the Mechanical Group.
By the time of the NTT, the use of CAD started building a new era in the design.  The first trials with 
AutoCAD from Autodesk proved that was a useful tool for the requirements needed in the 
observatory. 
At the workshop the arrival of CNC machines from Garching workshop, was an important step 
toward the digitalization of the work preparation. 
Engineering tools like FEM ( ALGOR) started to be used and new projects were generated like the 
upgrade of the 3.6m.