Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

Product Briefing Outline: BrightView Systems has unveiled the InSight M Series, which it claims to be the world's first in-line process control and optimization tool developed specifically to address the challenges faced by thin-film solar cell manufacturers. The Wide Area Metrology (WAM) system provides continuous monitoring and whole-panel mapping of critical material and process parameters at full production throughput and for 100% of manufactured panels.

Product Briefing Outline: Schneider Electric is now offering an approach to create intelligent energy management systems under the EcoStruxure banner. These systems are simplified, save money, and most importantly, reduce waste by enabling a guaranteed compatibility between the management of power, white space, process and machines, building control, and security. With EcoStruxure, businesses can anticipate better results and improvements in operations through systematic energy visibility and real time control of any energy usage. 

Product Briefing Outline: SunLink has introduced a new ground mount system to its family of commercial and utility-scale module mounting products. The new technology joins the Company’s flagship roof mount system and the recently released thin film solution for Nanosolar. Designed as a total system to save you procurement, management, and deployment time, the patent-pending ‘Ground Mount Solution’ is available as a ballasted or post-mount solution, making it ideal for a wide variety of installations and situations.

Product Briefing Outline: To help customers show objective evidence that they are in compliance with test specifications during ISO 17025 quality audits, Atlas now offers the ‘Atlas LS-200’ Full Spectrum Monitoring device. The LS-200 has been specifically designed for use in Ci Series ‘Weather-Ometers’ to precisely measure the SPD output of the xenon lamp. Validation tests have shown that this device has excellent correlation to the spectroradiometers used in the Atlas Calibration Laboratory.

Product Briefing Outline: Bystronic glass now offers the champ speed-series of glass substrate edge grinders, using experience gained from the automotive industry to provide clean, ground edges, free from cracks and shell defects, boosting yield and productivity in PV module production. The champ speed-series machines are completely vibration-free and can therefore provide the greatest precision in edge grinding.

Product Briefing Outline: Fluid control specialist, Horiba, has introduced a new range of mass flow controllers (MFC) competitively priced to fit the economic and production needs of the photovoltaic manufacturing sector. Manufactured in Japan, under strict quality conditions by HoribaStec, the SEC-N100 Series digital mass flow controller reliably controls the flow of process gases and cleaning gases. Multigas and multirange functions allow the user to configure the desired gas and flow range to increase flexibility and reduce overall costs, for example by decreasing flow controller inventory. Dedicated software makes this easy to do without removing the mass flow controller from the gas panel.

Product Briefing Outline: Schreiner ProTech has designed a rugged, self-adhesive Pressure Compensation Seal (PCS), especially designed to provide solar module junction boxes with long-lasting protection against severe environmental conditions, preventing damage to sensitive electrical components. The product has already been selected by KOSTAL Industrie Elektrik to be integrated into their PV modules' junction boxes.

Product Briefing: With the acquisition of Tecnofimes, Roth & Rau has collaborated with the subsidiary to develop a new firing furnace, dubbed CAMiNI. The system is characterized by high efficiency at low operating costs. The initially offered model with 2 lanes (6” wafers) provides the basis for an extension, which facilitates the firing of solar cell contacts onto up to three lanes at the same time. The throughput of the CAMiNI is indicated with ≥ 6,000 wafers/h. Roth & Rau has already received its first purchase orders for the system.

Product Briefing Outline: Vistrian has released version 5.0 of their ‘FactoryLOOK’ software platform. FactoryLOOK is a Manufacturing Intelligence System used by a number of companies including manufacturers of Solar, Semiconductor, Led, Data Storage, Networking, and Electronic assembly. The software allows for the immediate alerting and identifying of process anomalies and the ability to quickly identify factors affecting the development or manufacturing process and its variables.

Product Briefing Outline: Shuttleworth has introduced a new line of products for thin-film and crystalline solar panel handling. The company's new ‘Rotary Turntable’ can be located anywhere in the manufacturing process where the product must be rotated to maintain the proper orientation.