New Product: Edge grinding using Bystronic glass’ champ speed machine offers 99.5% yield

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email

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.

Problem: Cleanly ground edges of substrates are absolutely essential to ensure a smooth production process for solar modules. High edge quality free from cracks and shell defects is the only way to prevent glass breakage during the process. This is an important pre-condition for efficient and economical production since glass breakage is a relevant cost factor and always means a stoppage of the system. Whenever glass breakage occurs, the production systems must be run empty and cleaned, increasing downtime and reducing throughput.

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

Solution: Thanks to a mineral cast machine bed, champ speed-series machines are completely vibration-free and can therefore provide the greatest precision. Substrates can be ground with extremely fine tolerances of +/- 0.1 mm on absolutely perpendicular sides, even if the starting substrate has large deviations in the angles. As the machines are designed as polar grinding machines with a play-free table, both edges and corners are polished in one pass, with radius or facet. All axes are equipped with maintenance-free and highly dynamic CNC direct drives. The new spindle design works in seconds with two grinding wheels arranged one over the other. Additional time advantages are derived first from an automatic correction of the grinding wheel diameter, with changeover to another module series or substrate size taking less than five minutes, for example, as well as from the use of an automatic changing system for grinding wheels.

Applications: Most glass substrate sizes. Tolerances of +/- 0.1 mm on perpendicular sides.

Platform: The modular layout of the series, champ speed machines can be expanded to create large manufacturing cells with an integrated handling device and additional drilling machine. Champ speed’grind makes it possible to grind edges from a minimum finished dimension of 200 mm x 200 mm to a maximum finished dimension of 2200 mm x 2600 mm with C grind or K grind. The yield is claimed to be 99.5 percent.

Availability: January 2010 onwards.

Read Next

October 15, 2025
The Australian government has approved the 141MW Forbes Solar Farm Project in New South Wales in just 19 days, marking one of the fastest environmental approvals on record in the country.
October 15, 2025
Australia has opened registrations for Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) Tender 7, which targets 5GW of renewable energy generation capacity across the National Electricity Market (NEM).
October 14, 2025
The curtailment of solar PV and wind capacity in Chile has reached 3.2TWh as of August 2025, a slight increase from the same period in 2024.
Premium
October 14, 2025
OCI Holdings’ decision this week to buy a Vietnamese solar wafer facility to supply the US solar cell manufacturing industry makes clear the biggest vulnerability facing the sector today.
Premium
October 14, 2025
Perovskite, tariffs, Section 232 and FEOC were among the key topics discussed at PV CellTech USA this year in San Francisco.
October 14, 2025
German IPP wpd has started construction at its 140.6MW Marcy solar park in the Nièvre department of central France.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
October 21, 2025
New York, USA
Solar Media Events
November 25, 2025
Warsaw, Poland
Solar Media Events
December 2, 2025
Málaga, Spain
Solar Media Events
February 3, 2026
London, UK