Date: 30/09/2011

3600 wafers/hour solar PV metalization equipment with ramp rate up to 200 Deg C/Sec

BTU International has introduced the TRITAN HV90 metallization firing system for solar PV cell manufacturing. This new metalization machine handles a silicon wafer throughput of 3600 per hour, an edge belt, volatile organic compound (VOC) abatement and a single zone spike with less than 3 seconds spike time.

"The HV90 is a dual-lane firing furnace that is optimized for volume production," said Bob Bouchard, product-marketing manager for metallization products at BTU. "Dual-lane processing is a tremendous leap forward in the race to lower cost per watt. Customers switching to dual-lane can expect a 35% increase in capital efficiency and with the TRITAN HV90's unparalleled performance in lane to lane matching, there is really no reason to wait," added Bouchard.

TRITAN HV90 features the temperature ramp rates up to 200 Deg C per second without compromising the drying and cooling sections of the profile. This heating/cooling equipment uses three-belt, three-speed system to have better control of profile development. The solar PV cell manufacturers are searching for solar manufacturing equipment to reduce the cost per watt, this machine is designed to serve that purpose.

The other vendors making furnaces for solar PV manufacturing include SierraTherm, Despatch, Centrotherm, Sevenstar, Semco Engineering, Koyo, Tempress, SVCS.