Ecoprogetti Unveils New High-Speed Stringer At Intersolar Europe 2024

Ecoprogetti, a well-known Italian photovoltaic (PV) production tool maker, showcased its latest high-speed MBB stringer machine, ETS 6000 among other tools at the Intersolar Europe 2024 show.Speaking to TaiyangNews during the exhibition, the company comprehensively illustrated the key features of its latest stringer machine. These key features can be characterized based on multiple key metrics – Process, Production, and Quality control.

Process

The ETS 6000 stringer, featuring automatic cell loading capability in 8-cell baskets and subsequent optical cell inspection by a vision system, can process either full-cells or half-cells. The tool supports flexibility in terms of cell sizes and thickness, making customized sizes of modules possible, shared Ecoprogetti

While it supports M10 (182 x 182 mm) or G12 (210 x 210 mm) full-size cells, the compatibility with M10R (182 x 91 mm) or G12R (210 x 105 mm) half-cells is also possible, added the company. Besides half-cells, the latest stringer is also suitable for multiple rectangular-size cells – 191 x 182 mm, 199 x 182 mm, and 210 x 182 mm.

Triple cut-cell processing of G12 (210 x 72 mm) size is also available upon request, mentioned Ecoprogetti. The company emphasized that its tool with an integrated infrared soldering (IR) mechanism can successfully solder the soldering ribbon along the busbars of up to 130 µm thin cells in a cycle time of 0.6 sec. It has a wide range of busbar (BB) compatibility between 9BB to 24BB with flat ribbons of sizes between 0.5 mm to 1.1 mm width and 0.18 mm to 0.25 mm thickness, added the tool maker.

Besides the flexibility in cell-level soldering capability, ETS 6000 can deliver a substring of up to 2,300 mm long, maintaining cell-to-cell gap basis customer specifications. The exhibitor added that the tool has a cell-to-cell gap range of 1.5 mm to 50 mm.

Production

The exhibitor has also looked into 2 key performance indicators for the stringer – throughput and cost optimization. The tool’s dual-lane configuration yields a throughput of 6,000 cells/hour of half-cell soldering in a cycle time of 0.6 seconds. It further optimizes operational cost with over 92% assured machine availability, it added. This feature enables 1 operator to operate 2 tools simultaneously in a dual-lane configuration, reducing operational costs further.

Quality control (QC)

The accuracy of any stringer always underscores any PV module’s quality and long-term reliability. Ecoprogetti said its latest stringer with ribbon positioning accuracy of +/- 0.3 mm mitigates the risk of ribbon misalignment after soldering. On the other hand, the +/- 0.25 mm cell-to-cell gap accuracy enables the production of aesthetically pleasing BIPV modules, added the company.  The tool’s default distance between the string edge and module busbar of more than 13 mm also caters to the IEC 61730 safety criteria. According to the company datasheet, the front-side flat ribbon soldering peel strength of <= 1 N/mm and rear-side ribbon peel strength of <= 1.4 N/mm will diagnose low-quality soldering.

This tool’s compatibility with multiple types of cell technology - n-TOPCon, PERC, HJT, and IBC, can be attributed to key features like the flexibility of different operating temperature profiles, a wide range of allowable cell thickness, and multi-busbar (MBB) interconnection.