Automated lamination for photovoltaic module encapsulation

Automation of photovoltaic production is a necessary element to reduce the cost of PV modules. An important component of the production process is the encapsulation of the cells into an environmentally stable laminate. This process is presently labor intensive, and can be a bottleneck in production. The authors address the issues of automation in loading and unloading the laminate. An economic analysis is presented to justify the automation expense, by considering both reductions in labor and increases in throughput, especially when the process utilizes new “fast-cure” encapsulation materials