World-Class Glass

Düsseldorf Hosts the 20th glasstec

Among the products on display at glasstec 2008, which took place in October in Düsseldorf, Germany, one segment in particular stood out; machinery for solar glass production were present at every corner. As Professor Stefan Behling with the University of Stuttgart, and organizer of the glass technology live exhibit, said during the glasstec opening session, solar glass production is “an integral part of the glass industry.” It certainly seemed to be that way at this year’s glasstec.

According to Behling, glasstec provided an optimal forum for solar innovation. As an attendee of numerous solar conferences, Behling said he’s found that the solar module producers don’t have a “full grasp” on producing these energy-generating systems and it’s the glass industry that has “the know-how to make the machines,” and is ultimately tied to the installation of these products.

Behling also noted that solar technologies have been a part of glasstec for a number of years, although not in such force as this year. While some exhibitors admitted to working on solar production equipment for a number of years, it has only become a trend in the months since glasstec 2006.

For example, Benteler has been working on solar-related products for the last year and a half, according to one company representative, so its technology was new for this year’s glasstec. It is one of several companies adapting automotive glass equipment to take on grinding, seaming, cutting, handling and other functions for the sizes most common for solar panels.

An even more recent announcement came from Bystronic Glass, which announced during the show its partnership with the Laser Processing Systems business unit of Jenoptik to create production facilities for thin-film solar cells. The new machine resulting from the partnership combines the processes of laser edge deletion and laser glass cutting, or thermal laser separation. The laser glass cutting process leaves the glass edges free of cracks that, upon absorbing heat in PV applications, could lead to thermal stress breakage. According to information from the companies, subsequent processes such as cleaning or edge processing are not necessary with this equipment.

Intermac too has announced a partnership, which company representatives hinted at the show would soon be more. The company is now offering tempering furnaces through its relationship with BHT. According to Carlo Strappa, marketing manager, the furnaces provide the high quality required for producing glass for solar applications.

“We have an option to buy the company for 2009,” Strappa added.

In explaining what made Lisec’s new tempering furnace suitable for solar glass production, Bob Quast, president and chief executive officer of Lisec America Inc. in Burnsville, Minn., said that each company aims to produce “the best” quality glass anyway, but with solar glass production, “best” quality is a necessity.

“The ability to temper single-strength glass without roller wave [distortion] is critical for solar,” Quast said.

The company’s flat-bed furnace tempers glass sheets up to 2-mm thickness without optical distortion, according to information from the company. The company reports that the resulting tempered glass has a high resistance momentum so that it bends without breaking when exposed to high pressure or impact.

Bending and tempering solutions took up a part of Glaston’s massive booth. The new vice president of solar energy, Raimo Nieminen, was on hand to answer questions about his company’s new CHF Pro™ tempering furnace and ESU EcoPower bending furnace for concentrated solar power solutions.

Among those companies with new interests in the solar arena, Perrysburg, Ohio-based Glasstech promoted its years of experience in this area. According to the newsletter being handed out at the stand, Glasstech’s founders were involved in solar energy in the 1980s. The result is a bank of knowledge that has led to the creation of machinery for producing every type of solar glass. Examples of tempered parabolic glass that its benders can form were on hand in the booth.

As with numerous other companies, Grenzebach Corp.’s booth specifically displayed a line aimed toward seaming the most typical sizes of PV panels.

“A lot of our solar customers are concerned about the incoming edge when they get [a lite of glass],” explained Kearne Prendergast, solar technology account manager of Grenzebach in Newnan, Ga.

Visitors to the booth could watch the glass move along a belt conveyor to where it was picked up by a robot that ran the lite through a patented edge-detection system. Based on the measuring results, the robot then carried the lite along the edging spindle; once each side was edged, the lite was placed on another conveyor.

Of course, the typical sizes handled by much of the equipment on display may not be typical for long. Applied Materials hosted in its booth a 5.7 square meter panel (approximately 61.4 square feet)—the size panel that can be produced by its new SunFab™ solar module production line for fabricating thin film silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules. A benefit of the large lite, according to one sales representative with the company, is that the glass installer only has to work with one junction box and fewer wires than if he were installing a number of “traditionally” sized PV panels in the same space.

Saflex was another company offering new solar solutions in large sizes; the company launched its PV business in June 2008 and already provides PVB encapsulant technologies for thin film modules as large as 5.7 square meters. As was noted during the company’s press conference, Germany is a suitable place for presenting new solar technologies as the country is one of the largest users of PV.

“In Germany there’s more than a million homes already with the PV on their rooftop,” commented Joris Stoefs, director of commercial operations for Europe, the Americas and Africa.

Christopher Reed, global PV business director, noted that Germany and Spain are the biggest markets in this area due to government subsidies. He added that while solar energy has exploded worldwide as a topic, he expects growth in Asia to soon overtake even Europe’s usage of solar energy.

What’s Ahead

At this point, as exhibitors follow-up on leads and attendees put to use what they have learned at the show, one can only wonder what innovations will be on display at the next glasstec. The one thing that is certain is that plans already are underway for glasstec 2010, which will take place September 28-October 2 in Düsseldorf, Germany.