CompositesWorld

JAN 2018

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JANUARY 2018 46 CompositesWorld FOCUS ON DESIGN commercial and military microgrids, where ease of installation and robust design are essential. He stresses that key hurdles for the panel design were to choose materials that were no more expensive than standard glass and aluminum materials, and to be able to manufacture on standard equipment, at scale: "is is a very cost-competitive market. We knew our materials, methods and associated costs, and we know where our advantages lie, but it's still a long road." To realize this improved design, the company turned to its long-time partner DuPont with its requirements. Dupont introduced Armageddon to EconCore (Leuven, Belgium), a honey- comb core manufac- turer that uses a high- volume, continuous process to form honeycomb panels inline from a roll of thermoplastic sheet, via a series of thermoforming, slitting and folding steps (see Learn More). e group determined that EconCore's ermHex thermo- plastic honeycomb panel, made of DuPont Zytel polyamide resin film, with panel faceskins made with DuPont Vizilon thermo- plastic composite (TPC) polyamide sheet reinforced with contin- uous glass fibers in a twill weave, would create a strong and rigid panel able to replace aluminum in the structural backpanel, used for version 1.0, says Janet Sawgle, program manager at DuPont. Indeed, the EconCore ermHex with Vizilon skins enables a cored panel product of minimal weight and high strength and stiffness, with sufficient heat tolerance to hold up to the high temperatures (up to 150°C during manufacturing as well as long- term stresses faced on roofs in the hot sun). Adds Sawgle, "We have field and lab testing underway to further demonstrate the performance of these panels." "e honeycomb panels are easy to work with," says Goldman. "We can machine the features we want and shape them without the dust generation you'd get from fiberglass. ey meet our 30-year weathering requirements and our application needs — fast installation and resilience in harsh, outdoor environments." With the new support or "substrate" developed, Goldman describes how the rest of the 1.7m by 1.1m by 17-mm-thick, 300W, 7.7-kg panel comes together, a process he calls "packaging," typical of all solar cell manufacturing: "We laminate high-efficiency monocrystalline solar cells onto our composite substrate, using encapsulants to protect the cells, typically ethylene vinyl acetate or EVA, and the ETFE frontsheet to protect the front of the panel and provide the performance advantages we want." Prior to being placed in the stack, the cells have been wired and connected in series. e clear ETFE is 2-5 mils thick, depending on the application, is stack is laminated in a heated press, under vacuum, for 10-20 minutes. e heat and pressure causes the EVA to crosslink and cure, thus encapsulating the solar cells, with care Read this article online | short.compositesworld.com/ArmaSolar Electrical energy costs from solar and other forms of power generation are compared at Solar Cell Central, Four Peaks Technology Inc. (Scottsdale, AZ, US) | solarcellcentral.com/cost_page.html See more about EconCore's continuous process for manufacturing ThermHex honeycomb core | www.compositesworld. com/products/camx-2015-preview-econcore Watch a YouTube video that describes how typical solar panels are made | www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYeynLy6pj8 A background resource on solar cells and panels | www.letsgosolar.com/faq/how-are- solar-panels-made Version 1.0 solar installation This rooftop installation shows Armageddon's first generation, hexagonal SolarClover design, which uses aluminum frames.

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