Wire Production
Manufacturing at Omega starts near the bottom of the supply chain. The company actually produces its own thermocouple wire at a manufacturing operation that turns out tens of millions of feet per year. Starting with bare wire stock in a wide range of compositions and diameters, finished cable is made for a myriad of Omega products. Specialized machines turn out braided, extruded, glass-wrapped, shielded, single conductor, multi-conductor, twisted shielded pairs, Kapton coated, and PFA coated cable in both solid and stranded styles. The smallest size used is 40 gauge, which is much finer than a human hair. Such small gauge sizes are used in many temperature and pressure sensors, and Omega production personnel have become experts in handling these super fine wires. If you can think of a wire type, it is probably made in the Omega facility.

Automation
Omega is a strong advocate of process automation for both its productivity and quality benefits. It is used extensively throughout the various manufacturing locations. Where commercial equipment is used, the input and output processes are often objects of in-house automation. Omega has some of the most talented automation engineers around and has invested in the model shops and labs needed to support them. Working with a talented staff of software engineers, they produce a wide range of custom automation equipment. Interestingly, Omega makes extensive use of its own components and instrumentation products in these automation projects; products that are also purchased and used by other manufacturers worldwide. This includes temperature and pressure sensors, load cells, actuators, heaters, and instrumentation.

Temperature Probes
Omega boasts an automated probe manufacturing facility that is unequalled. Starting with coils of flat metal stock and a wide range of wire types, a highly automated production line fabricates probe sheath, with wiring enclosed, in coils which can be hundreds of feet in length. Sheath sizes range from an incredibly thin .010 inches up to a robust .375 inches. While other manufacturers make the probes individually to a specific length, Omega can make any desired length by simply cutting it from the probe coil. The temperature sensor (thermocouple or RTD) is then added to one end, leads added to the other and the unit is sealed, tested, calibrated, and ready to go.

Thin Film Fabrication
RTD elements used in temperature sensors and probes are made in Omega’s own thin film fabrication facility located in a class 10 clean room. Here the RTD elements are created on substrates, 2000 at a time, using the latest vacuum deposition and photolithography equipment and processes. After leaving the clean room, the elements are laser trimmed to the correct resistance, assembled into completed sensors with leads attached, tested, and sorted. While many of these processes are automated, a highly skilled production team carries out those steps that are best done manually. From here the completed RTD sensors are routed to other manufacturing locations for incorporation into a wide variety of end products.

Benefits of In-House Manufacturing
Omega products are used in many critical applications in manufacturing, food processing, medicine, aerospace, and science, to name a few. By making the individual components within the company, Omega can achieve a measure of control not possible when critical parts are supplied by a variety of vendors with a variety of reliabilities. Through extensive use of automation and in-process quality testing, the uncertainties that can be associated with outside vendors have been eliminated. This is key to the high esteem Omega enjoys among its customers and its reputation for highly consistent, top quality products. And, in the event of a problem, you are dealing directly with the manufacturer who can resolve it.