VENDORVIEW
For example photovoltaic cells are connected by soldering a soldering strip at the inside, and this strip is heated by laser energy until the solder melts. During this process, it is essential that there is not a single point on the solar cells where the temperature exceeds a specific threshold, since this would result in a risk of damage and breakage. If the temperature limit is nevertheless exceeded, an alarm will activate the outfeed of the products.
Automated infeed and outfeed
Such infeed and outfeed requirements are fully met with the stackers and destackers (Figure 1) from GEROLD especially developed for glass and photovoltaic panel production. They are preferably positioned at the end of production lines to ensure reliable outfeed of coated glass panels. But stackers and destackers are also useful in other parts of the production line after specific quality tests. Stacking can alternatively be carried out on glass racks or pallets, vertically and horizontally. The optimum in this section is several automated destackers which can sort by qualities and can be combined in a central destacking section (Figure 2). The section can be arranged and structured by quality, type of fault or any other organizational aspects. Stackers and destackers are fast, featuring an extremely short cycle time of less than ten seconds, precise and reliable.
A comparison of just the investments and operating costs arising with the much vaunted robots often used at this interface with those of relatively simple destackers already shows that the latter enable to achieve substantial savings. On the one hand, as regards the investments, and on the other hand, as regards continuous operation. As far as the control is concerned, the integration of the destackers into existing production lines is no problem at all. The destackers are self-contained in terms of control technology; they receive their stacking and sorting commands via the panel code or a central master control computer.
Thanks to their well engineered technology, the susceptibility of these devices to failure is low, and their availability is very high. The stackers are always equipped with at least four vacuum suction grippers. Where spacers are required between the racks, additional grippers are used. Thanks to the compact and lightweight design, the very short cycle times could be achieved using parallel kinematics. Individual requests as to state of
occupancy and measurement of distance can be integrated as an option. Taking the handling concept developed by GEROLD as a basis, the suction gripper ensures a high level of process reliability. The suction grippers seize the pane or the substrate without leaving any marks and, as a result, satisfy highest demands as to acceleration, travel speed and position accuracy.
All panes are stacked at high speed, in a safe way and with the required sensibility. As an option, integrated sensors can measure the distance to the glass package, which is done in order to eliminate stacking faults and glass breakage, which must be prevented at any rate. When a pallet is fully loaded, the operator receives an acoustic signal and then replaces the full pallet with an empty pallet. There are also additional units for inserting spacers / distance pieces between the panes.
Thanks to the compact and lightweight design, the very short cycle times could be achieved using parallel kinematics. Individual requests as to state of occupancy and measurement of distance can be integrated as an option
Figure 2: Destacking of categorized TF modules
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www.solar-pv-management.com Issue III 2010
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