The market for renewable energy solutions continues to grow, creating a terrific upswing in technological innovation and the demand for more efficient and reliable ways to produce photovoltaic products, including solar PV cells.
Achieving Positional Accuracy
These innovations have introduced a particular set of problems for manufacturers trying to automate solar panels and solar equipment production. Plastic and fabric belts have continuously failed to meet the industry’s unique demands. As a result, stainless steel conveyor belts have become the optimal choice when designing solar panel tabber and stringer equipment.
Stainless Steel Is Resistant to Extreme Temperatures
Solar panels are produced by welding individual cells together using blasts of hot air up to 390°C (734°F). While other belt materials will warp or melt at these temperatures, the stainless steel materials react well to the thermal cycles in stringing processes to maintain consistency, shape, and Functionality, ensuring positional accuracy.
We offer a variety of stainless steel alloys with varying degrees of thermal resistance; this means our engineers can design the perfect stainless steel belt for your application, including additional coatings and surface treatments.
Perforations for Reliable Vacuum Transportation
Vacuum conveyors are often used in the production of solar panels. Our customers benefit from our custom perforated PureSteel® belts that work in tandem with vacuum systems to deliver smooth and precise movements. The accuracy of the perforated belt is maintained in harsh environments throughout the belt’s life.
Clean, Accurate Conveyor Systems Built to Last
PureSteel® stainless steel conveyor belts offer cost savings to manufacturers by reducing the number of necessary belt changes—less downtime makes for predictable, consistent output. Additionally, metal belts are clean to operate, do not require lubrication, minimize debris buildup and do not generate particulates that can damage sensitive solar cells.
Case Study: An Out-Of-This-World Solar Panel Solution
The Problem
The customer is an American manufacturer that operates a satellite communications service and provides internet access to a rapidly expanding global subscriber base. To create the necessary panels for all these satellites, the customer incorporated a production line consisting of small stringer conveyors to assemble the cells—each of which uses several of our stainless steel belts—and multiple six-axis robots to lift them, turn them and place them in a central area for electrical testing. This last step, which was originally completed by hand, proved to be a bottleneck for the overall operation.
The Solution
The customer asked our team for a conveyor to accurately move cells into place and maintain positioning for electrical testing before ushering them down the line. The customer also required a quick turnaround for delivery, so when they provided us with their required specifications for acceleration, speed, cycle-time and duty-cycle, we jumped right in.
After an exchange of ideas, our team first created a vacuum conveyor with a perforated belt, which helped maintain the position of the cells during the test. Although the initial belt and vacuum system met all the customer’s design specifications, it did not achieve their desired performance results.
We reworked the original design, ultimately replacing the vacuum system with one that used a belt with an applied friction coating. This conveyor system proved to be even more successful in achieving the cell position because, in addition to accurately positioning the cells, it also electrically isolated them from the belt for testing.
The Result
Our experienced engineers collaborated with the customer to provide this custom solution that was easy to install and maintain while surpassing production goals. So far, we have provided them with three conveyor systems, with plans for at least two more.
This customer, like many others, benefited from our custom, perforated PureSteel® belts’ ability to deliver smooth and precise movements. Due to the inherent benefits of stainless steel, the belts won’t stretch over time and can maintain an accurate index for years to come. The project’s success has opened up the opportunity for future projects and partnerships with the customer.
The PureSteel® Solution for Your Solar Application
Our steel belts offer many attributes that make them ideal for solar panels and solar equipment production. Reach out to one of our expert engineers today to discuss how we can help optimize your production.
