EOW March 2014

News Technology

PV Ribbon – integrated production from rolling to tinning

and allow manufacturing of the best quality ribbons for the solar market.

The new PV ribbon line can produce super-soft ribbons with yield strength <50MPa (Rp0.2%). These super-soft ribbons are spooled onto a single head takeup at a speed of up to 150m/min. PV ribbon manufacturers can choose to integrate the line with the rolling mill or run it independently. The new process is completely chemical-free, and uses neither flux nor rolling agents, which makes the whole production dry and environmentally friendly. Plasmait is a supplier of heat and surface treatment solutions for wire, cable, tube, strip and the ribbon industry. Plasmait’s other solution is the high-speed PlasmaANNEALER for stainless steel and nickel alloys for fine wire that offers annealing speeds of up to 900m/min.

Plasmait is launching a new fully integrated line for the production of interconnect ribbon – or solar ribbon. PV ribbon is tinned copper ribbon installed in photovoltaic or solar panels. Interconnect ribbon is soldered onto silicon cells in order to interconnect arrays of solar cells in the solar panel. The interconnect ribbon carries the current generated in the solar cells to the PV bus bar, which in turn carries the current out of the solar panel. PV ribbons are 1mm to 6mm wide and 0.1 to 0.3mm thick. They are coated with a 10 to 30 micron thick layer of solder. of PlasmaPREPLATE process to the PV ribbon industry in 2007, Plasmait has continuously improved the process to streamline production Since the introduction

Plasmait GmbH – Austria Website : www.plasmait.com

▲ ▲ PV ribbon spool from Plasmait

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March 2014