COVERSTORY
By eliminating the cost of additional control units, DEK effectively makes the scale-up process even more cost effective.
This unique approach to manufacturing flexibility satisfies the demands of even the most progressive solar cell manufacturers, allowing them to protect their initial investments into the future, no matter how unclear that future may be, and enabling them to build their capabilities as their needs grow, with a selection of capabilities that make Eclipse quite simply the most versatile, flexible, best-designed solar cell metallisation solution for the solar industry today.
Eclipse screen print work area
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simply. For those manufacturers who foresee this sort of production ramp, the metallisation line can be designed accordingly, by inserting blank process modules equipped with conveyor belts where future production volumes will be added in. When the time is right to add in throughput volume, these blanks can simply be swapped out for additional print capacity.
Loading the precision screen
This saves the manufacturer from having to reconfigure the entire line to accomodate the extra modules, and makes the scaling process relatively simple, fast and cost effective. The primary process modules, including the print head and loader, incorporate master controls and are designated as master units. Additional process modules, which can be retrofitted in the client’s facility, operate as secondary “slaves”, hooking up to the master control units in the primary modules.
The advantages of Eclipse combine powerfully with DEK’s own manufacturing philosophy. Based on lean, extremely flexible approaches such as Kanban, this allows DEK to share common cross- industry equipment platforms to keep production costs to a minimum while reducing turnaround times from months to weeks.
Furthermore, with manufacturing facilities in Europe and China, and a global support infrastructure that places technical expertise and spare parts close to its customers wherever they may be, DEK is a true leader and a truly global technology partner. And this, combined with DEK’s foresight, its clear vision and its highly credible roadmap, is invaluable in enabling DEK’s customers to move swiftly and seamlessly ahead of their changing circumstances.
Conclusion
Wherever you look in the solar cell and module assembly industry, repeatable accuracy, and more specifically, repeatable print alignment accuracy, is at the heart of solar cell efficiency. The considerable process capabilities that come with DEK’s new Eclipse metallisation solution respond fully to this need, and this, and the way in which Eclipse can be adapted so rapidly and easily to the needs of any manufacturing environment, make for a powerful combination for cell manufacturers – and indeed the entire solar industry – as they strive to drive costs/watt down.
Once again, with Eclipse, DEK demonstrates that it is ahead of the field in terms of innovation, vision, and its deep understanding of the needs of its customers and of the solar cell manufacturing sector in general, and that it is one of the principal agents for change in the solar industry.
www.solar-pv-management.com Issue VI 2010
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