pv magazine Spotlight | No limitations in lamination

A key stage in the module production process, lamination is central to overall module quality and longevity. Beyond conventional modules as well, PV is expanding into the built environment and even vehicles. This is already seeing solar cells integrated into components of all shapes and sizes, and they still need the protection against the elements that lamination can provide.

Join this pv magazine Spotlight, in partnership with Robert Bürkle, for a look at the latest technologies in PV lamination. Today, the outlook is strong for solar manufacturing growth in many regions, including Europe, the United States and India. Bürkle is supplying several of these projects, and its laminators are already up and running at some. We’ll hear from Robert Gaiser, sales director for PV and glass at Bürkle, on how the company has positioned itself to play a key role both in Europe’s PV manufacturing comeback and the spread of solar manufacturing to other regions. Daniel Klaus, an expert in process development at Bürkle will also be on hand to take us through how the company has innovated to keep up with the latest cell and module technologies, as well as growing expectations for throughput on production lines and module lifetime in the field.

Despite the current comeback, recent years have not been kind to many of Europe’s PV equipment suppliers, and the lack of domestic activity led Bürkle to bring its expertise in glass lamination to other markets, in particular the construction industry. And this means the company is now uniquely positioned to serve growing demand for the manufacture of building-integrated and even vehicle integrated PV components. Design requirements of architects and the need to maximize available space for solar generation mean this market requires PV devices in some odd shapes and sizes, that might not be so easy to laminate: particularly for an industry used to dealing with flat glass products. Bürkle is participating in research projects to optimize production of these integrated PV devices, and Fraunhofer ISE’s Head of Module Technology Holger Neuhaus will join the Spotlight to share progress in one project developing lamination processes for three dimensional shapes incorporating PV generation.

pv magazine Spotlight content:
• Module manufacturing/PV laminator market development
• Laminating glass-glass and the latest module technologies
• Investigating “3D” lamination processes for BIPV and VIPV
• Q&A

We encourage you to ask questions, which can be submitted beforehand or during the Spotlight through a chat window. Frederike Egerer, Head of Events at pv magazine, will be the host of this Spotlight.

pv magazine is hosting this Spotlight on behalf of our partner, Bürkle, which is responsible for the content. For more information on our pv magazine Spotlights, please visit https://www.pv-magazine.com/spotlights.