SOLARAWARDS2011 WINNERS
metallization line can be designed accordingly, by inserting spacer process modules equipped with conveyors where future production modules will be added in. When production demands an increased throughput capability, these spacers can simply be swapped out for additional functional capacity. The primary process modules, including the print head and unloader, incorporate full control systems and are designated as master units. Additional field retrofittable process expansion modules operate as secondary slaves, hooking up to the master control units in the primary modules. By eliminating the cost of additional control units, the scaling process is simple, fast and cost effective. With the Eclipse platform, manufacturers can plan an easy, non-disruptive, cost-effective scale up and future proofed path.
Innovation: Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Eclipse is the fact that it has been designed with change very much in mind. Todays manufacturers know that their future success lies in being ready to embrace and run with changing circumstances, be they new market demands, technologies, customer locations, government policy or any of the myriad factors that impact the solar industry.
Recognising this, DEK Solar has developed a solution that can be reconfigured on an ongoing basis according to budgetary and production needs. After all, why should a manufacturer invest in equipment before it is really necessary?
This unique approach to manufacturing configurability 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, best-designed metallisation solution for the solar industry today.
Customer Benefits: Customers benefit from DEKs process knowledge and applications expertise, which has been gathered over more than 40 years. Eclipse adds value by maximising utilisation, yield and productivity. DEKs global infrastructure, built expressly to support DEKs print platforms and process products in every market sector and any part of the world, gives customers confidence that support and parts are available whenever they need it.
Note from the Judges: Solar and PV manufacturing requires many specialised tools and knowledge from t he tool providers. For manufacturers it is not just about buying tools but how the tool provider integrates the tool to meet their needs. With the need to reduce the overall costs and improve performance in all aspects of the industry, the continual improvement of manufacturing tools to keep up with industry needs will be a key factor in meeting cost per watts expectations. The winner of this category has developed tools that provide metallization solution for
commercial solar cell production and despite early successes have not sat still and continually improve the tool sets they provide in this area. The platform is modular allowing personal configurations allowing manufacturers to easily scale production to 1200, 2400 or 3600 wph as demand dictates and productions can be ramped up by adding further modules.
PV Process Improvement Award
CONSOL
The soldering table is a stand-alone soldering station for solar cells (identical soldering station as the Somont stringers) for material testing and qualification under production conditions. The station is compact and cost-efficient. New materials (cells, ribbons, flux) can be tested and verified much faster. This leads to a drastic time and cost reduction for the development process which would be normally carried out on the production machines.
Challenge: Until now the R&D departments have been faced with following issue: If there has been f.i. a new cell development, this new cell has to be tested for solderability on the stringer. But the production has the target to produce a certain amount of modules/day. Consequently it is difficult for the R&D to get valuable production time on a stringer for testing new materials (cells, ribbons, flux...)
Problem Solved: The soldering station is a cost and space- saving solution for every laboratory /development department. The station delivers excellent quality soldering results with high peeling forces. New developments (cells, ribbons, pastes, flux) can be tested more intense and without any time pressure on the soldering table and verified much faster afterwards on the stringer. This leads to a drastic cost reduction.
Noteworthy: The soldering table is a compact, cost-efficient tool, which can be set up in every laboratory/development department. We have not found a similar product on the market.
Innovation: The soldering table is the ideal tool for various target customers: For module, cell, ribbon, flux, paste manufacturers as well as institutes and laboratories. Until now most of the above mentioned target customers have tested/soldered their new developed materials manually or as mentioned under point 1 on a stringer which is very expensive and difficult to get the testing time of the production. To draw conclusions from manual soldering/testing for later automated stringer production is therefore difficult. With the soldering table the customer receive
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