In-Depth Knowledge about PV Ribbon Wire

“PV” is an acronym for Photo Voltaic, meaning something that produces current when struck by a molecule of natural light. Solar photovoltaics is a booming technology these days, with so many environmental concerns being raised be conventional sources of energy. The genius combination of solar photovoltaic materials and harnessing energy has made it possible to convert sunlight into electricity on a large scale. The PV ribbon wire is a very important component of photovoltaics. This blog will give you in-depth knowledge about PV ribbon wire.

What is PV ribbon?

Typically, a photovoltaic ribbon is a thin strip of copper which is heat coated with tin. This is the wire which is used to connect solar cells together in a solar module. The photovoltaic ribbon is attached directly to the silicon substrate on a solar cell, which enables it to collect the electricity produced in the cell. These PV ribbons then connect to the PV bus bar. In this manner, the current generated in the solar cells connected with one PV ribbon is sent to the PV bus bar. PV bus bar is also a PV ribbon which is slightly bigger than the interconnect ribbon used with solar cells.

Technical details of PV ribbon

The PV ribbon used as bus bars are about 3 to 6mm wide and 0.2 to 0.5mm thick, while those used for interconnection of solar cells are 1 to 3mm wide and 0.08 to 0.2mm thick. If you went out to buy one, you would typically find spools weighing anywhere between 50kg to 600kg. They contain tin (100%) as the lead free solder option, and SnPb 60/40 as the leaded option. You can find these ribbons in low temperature versions as well with Bismuth in the alloy.

Above are the major points you need to know about PV ribbon.

Things To Consider When Choosing Low Temperature Lead-Free Solders

The new age has ushered in new technology and materials in the electronics industry which are set to revolutionize traditional methods. Lead-free solders are a part of this revolution, and have proved to be better and more versatile than the materials used earlier for soldering. There are many specialized jobs that lead-free solders can achieve which were earlier not possible with leaded solders. If you have some specialized soldering jobs lined up, here are things to consider when choosing low temperature lead-free solders.

First off, assess the temperature you are going to be working at while soldering. If there are components and materials involved that are likely to melt or get damaged at normal soldering temperatures, it is time to go for a low temperature lead-free solder.

Secondly, think of the application of the soldering job. Certain specialized applications require low temperature solders, like thermometers used in food preparation and fire detection devices. Also, in reflow processes where temperatures are likely to harm the assembly, low temperature lead-free solder can be used in applications such as:

• Flex circuitry in cell phones, smartwatches and other smart devices

• Components that are temperature sensitive

• Step soldering process where sequential soldering is to be done without damaging the previous one

• Large area devices in order to avoid common faults like head-in-pillow and non-wet open.

If any of the above situation corresponds to your soldering job, you should buy a low temperature lead free solder.

Important Industrial Solder Alloys and Their Uses

Knowing the right solder alloy to use for your application is critical to the success of any project. If the proper solder alloy isn’t chosen and correct plating requirements aren’t defined or flowed, it could result in rework and excessive scrap, or worse the failure of your application. There are many different types of solder alloys and concentrations used for all kinds of applications, but it is important to first have a general understanding of solder and how it works.

Solder is basically a metal wire that has a low melting point (or low enough for melting using a soldering iron). For electronics, solder is usually made from a combination of lead and tin. Tin has a much lower melting point than Lead, which means that higher tin concentrations means a lower solder melting point. Typically, you would find 60Sn/40Pb lead-based solders at gadget stores, although other minor variations are also sold. For industrial purposes, however, you would typically find two major categories of solder alloys, namely, flux cores, and lead-free.

Flux cores further comes in two common forms, such as Acid and Rosin. Acid flux core solder alloys are ideal for plumbing use and cannot/should not be used in electronics as it will likely erode your boards and components. For electronics purposes, choose rosin core. Lead-free alloys are what industry regulations and standards are leaning more towards. Because the EU is now requiring pretty much every commercially available electronics to use lead-free parts and components, this also means more demand for lead-free solders. Lead-free solders pretty much work exactly like lead-based solders, only they are more environmentally friendly. Lead is believed to be a very toxic material, which is why safer metals are now being used in its place. Lead-free solders, however are a lot harder to work with, as replacement metal alloys behave differently and don’t flow as well as lead.

Enabling High-Performance Operations with Robotic Soldering

Modern day technology is enabling more and more automation because the lesser the presence of human interference in a process, the more accurate the process will be. In the soldering industry as well, robotic soldering is being implemented with increased preference and demand. How is robotic soldering so much in demand? This blogpost will talk about how robotic soldering enables high-performance operations.

Robotic soldering is nothing but automation of the steps involved in the soldering process – for example, stenciling – you simply need to feed the designed printed circuit board into a computer, and robotic arms will cut out a stencil as per the design. All the subsequent steps will be taken care of by the same automated setup – application of flux, solder, cleaning and everything. Automating any process brings efficiency into the system. Read further to find out the benefits of automating soldering processes and manufacturing high-performance units.

• Precision – robotic soldering ensures precision in application of fluxes and solder. Wastage is effectively prevented, thus amounting to considerable savings.

• Consistency in production – robotic soldering displays high consistency in finished products. There is almost never any deviation in patterns and design, resulting in uniformity in produced goods.

• Manpower requirement and errors – Manpower required to carry out any process is reduced or eliminated altogether through automation of processes. Errors associated with human handling of things is also eliminated.

• Speed – Production speed and volume is also consequently increased with automation.

Given all of the factors listed above, high-performance printed circuit boards can be manufactured without much hassle through robotic soldering.

THE CHALLENGES IN SOLAR CELL TABBING

Solar panel is an assembly of solar cells that synthesizes the sunlight into electricity. As a solar panel is an assembly of many solar cells, it requires internal connections/wiring between these solar cells known as tabbing. In order to get the highest possible output from a solar photovoltaic installation, it is necessary for the solar cells to be tabbed with care. In this blog, you will learn about the challenges in solar cell tabbing.

Challenge #1: Positioning

The tabbing ribbon or wire, including the bus ribbon or wire, has to be positioned precisely on the solar cells. Tabbing wires collect the power generated in the cell and send it to the bus ribbon – which means that achieving the optimum area of collection for each tabbing ribbon would help achieve the maximum output from the solar panels. One solution to this is using computerized operations.

Challenge #2: Continuity

It is important to achieve seamless tabbing which is continuous. Breakage in soldering tabbing wire onto a solar cell can result in poor efficiency. Challenging as it is, fair amount of concentration can help you get tabbing right.

Challenge #3: Quantity

Getting the right amount of tabbing wires on each cell helps optimize collection of current. Too much tabbing results in wastage of cell area that could otherwise have produced electricity.

While solar panel assemblies can be challenging, above mentioned simple tabbing solutions can help optimize the process.