French technology company, IRELEC Alcen, based in Grenoble, manufactures optomechanical and robotics systems for synchrotron facilities worldwide. A synchrotron (a type of particle accelerator) is an extremely powerful source of X-rays, which is used for scientific research in fields such as materials physics, chemistry and molecular biology. One example of such a facility is the Diamond Light Source (DLS) in Oxfordshire, UK.