Paste dispensing or dosing in photovoltaic PV – is it worth to use an automatic dosing equipment ?

During photovoltaic cell production, screen printers apply different types of paste, either silver Ag or aluminum Al or aluminum-silver AlAg.   These pastes need to be dosed or dispensed in a proper way into the screen printing machines. Many times this is done by hand. Beside this there are good dosing systems for the paste, such as from ViscoTec. But is it worth using a full-automatic dosing equipment?   Using dispensing equipment for the paste saves labor cost. But this is not the big deal.  

Consider a 4 Euro cell, where only 20% of the cost is the paste.   Lets suggest with the dosing equipment you save 0,5% of paste and reduce the failure rate by 0,2% (the paste is much more homogeneous with a ViscoTec dispenser type ViscoTreat).  

A line with 1200 cell per hour, running 700 hour per month, has an output of 840.000 cells per month. So the monthly savings of paste is about 3.360 Euro. Further, you can sell for 6.720 Euro more cells because of the better quality. Your total savings can be 10.000 Euro/ month.   I am wondering if you agree with my figures? I would be happy to get your feedback at georg.senftl*Viscotec.de (please use the @ instead of the *)  Georg Senftl  

Austrotec in Graz June 13th - 15th, 2007

 The Austrotec takes place this year for the second time in Graz in messecentergraz and offers a platform to the information exchange over current standards and trend in production and automation technology and quality assurance. On the innovation fair for the manufacturing process we will present our technology.

We will provide dispensing and application solutions for low to high viscosity products. We inform you in detail about our innovative solutions, e.g.:

- Robot-supported applications of low to high viscosity adhesives and sealing materials
- Hobbock and barrel emptying systems
- Dosing of adhesives and sealing compounds
- Product preparations
- 2-component-dosing
- Color dosing
- Dosing of abrasive pastes

Perhaps you drop over. You can find us in Stadthalle, booth 116.
You find more information about Austrotec under http://www.messecentergraz.at/austrotec07/

Dosing of soldering paste

Yesterday I participated in a service employment. The customer doses soldering paste as a application on a metal part, dosing quantity approx. 1.5 g, and had a ViscoTec plant in use, which ran for 7 years nearly problem-free. The entire plant consists of the components dosing control with dispenser and product supply, whereby the product supply is implemented as agitating mixing system with evacuation. The soldering paste is enriched with many air and/or gas vesicles, which is sucked off by the vacuum produced by a vacuum pump. Several weeks ago one had cleaned the hoses and the storage vessel, and since then our Dispenser had twice failed. In addition for some time the dosing result was not satisfactorily. The failure cause of the Dispensers was fast found: during the cleaning apparent larger chunks of the somewhere hardened soldering paste came into the system, and blocked a nozzle. The ViscoTec Dispenser then must develop a very high pressure, this leads medium-term to the destruction of the construction unit stator. During this maintenance the operator tells by the way that the vaccum pump does not function ‚probably’ any longer. He hasn`t thought over it however no further, and from his boss he was not asked over remarkablenesses. Would have been so simple: if air is in the paste, then the dosing accuracy cannot be correct, this always leads to a bad accuracy, and/or above all also to a dripping at the nozzle or for the interruption of the application. The cause was a defective safety switch and fast found. A small cause - large effect: often this saying applies to problems when dosing. A sealing for 20 cent, which is not leak-proof, often causes costs of several 1000 Euro. And we are afraid nothing as much, as air in the system or in the product. Its George Senftl

Bonding in the automotive engineering

The adhesive technology forms frequently the substantial basis for the advancement of mixed-architecture constructions in the lightweight construction. Against this background the Bayern Innovativ GmbH organizes in co-operation with the Fraunhofer-Institut für Fertigungstechnik und Angewandte Materialforschung (IFAM), Bremen, the 7. BAIKA cooperation platform „Bonding in the automotive engineering“ in Nuremberg.

Innovative product developments and practically solutions to the topics

- bonding in carcass and assembling
- innovations by bonding in commercial motor vehicle construction
- interior solutions with the bonding technology
- innovative 2-component-dosing technology
- inspection of adhesive and sealant application

are discussed in this industry study group.

ViscoTec reported last year on the forum with the topic „Process-sure dosing of very viscous adhesive and sealing materials“. Pictures

Program and registration see http://www.bayern-innovativ.de/kleben2007

Place and date of event:
April 24th 2007
Nürnberger Akademie, Marmorsaal (2.OG)
Gewerbemuseumsplatz 2
90403 Nürnberg

Data base dosing

Probably in each company, above all if it concerns dosing of different adhesives, sealing materials or colors, the question often arises: did we make that already times? And above all: how did we make that? And were there problems? I do not know, as much 1000 different adhesives or sealing materials there are, beginning with anaerobic adhesive, over RTV silicones to UV adhesives. I know however that many of them require an individual dosing technology. Now we have dosed some hundred different products with surely already, made many errors, but gained evenly also very much experience, where one must watch out. So that this knowledge is not only present in our coworkers´mind, we began now the structure of a data base. Here now the most diverse plant parameters to all different products are deposited, if possible with exact product number and MDS, and all test results or customer experiences in this connection are stored. Thus if you should look for someone, which has already experience with a special product, just ask us. The probability that we know your application, is high. It doesn`t cost anything to ask, and one does not have to reinvent the wheel again.