JP2000349309A - Solar cell module sealing method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a method for sealing a solar cell module that can uniformly heat and laminate a body to be laminated. A lower chamber (12) having a mounting plate (14) provided with a heater (15), and an inflatable diaphragm (21).
And an upper chamber 13 provided to be openable and closable relative to the lower chamber, and a laminate of a solar cell module and a sealing member mounted on the mounting board is laminated. In the method for sealing a solar cell module, a step of preheating the diaphragm to a predetermined temperature, a step of supplying the object to be laminated on the mounting board, and a step of closing the lower chamber and the upper chamber and closing these chambers Depressurizing and degassing from the sealing member;
Expanding the diaphragm to pressurize and heat the object to be laminated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for sealing a solar cell module in which a semiconductor cell provided on a glass substrate is sealed with a sealing member.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Solar cell modules include an amorphous silicon type using amorphous silicon in addition to a crystal type using single crystal silicon or polycrystalline silicon. It is easy to react and may be weak against physical impact.

Therefore, a semiconductor cell formed in the solar cell module for the purpose of protecting the silicon or the like is replaced with an ethylene vinyl acetate-copolymer (hereinafter referred to as EVA).
And a structure in which a sealing member mainly composed of ethylene-vinyl acetate-triallyl isocyanurate terpolymer crosslinked product (hereinafter referred to as EVAT) is used.

A conventional apparatus for laminating a solar cell module with a sealing member such as EVA or EVAT is disclosed in
No. 95089. In the apparatus disclosed in this publication, an upper chamber provided with a diaphragm and a lower chamber provided with a heater panel are provided so as to be openable and closable, and a solar cell module and the solar cell module are stacked on the heater panel and the diaphragm. The sealing member and the sealing member are integrated by pressing and heating.

At this time, the substrate of the solar cell module is directly heated on one side by the heater panel, while the sealing member provided on the other side is heated by heat transfer from the heater panel via the substrate. Therefore, a temperature difference occurs between one side surface and the other side surface of the substrate during the heating process, and the substrate easily warps due to the temperature difference. Therefore, the edge of the substrate may be damaged at the time of pressurization, or the substrate may not be uniformly heated as a whole.

Therefore, in the prior art disclosed in the above-mentioned publication, a preheated heater is provided before a laminated object including a joined solar cell module and a sealing member is loaded into a chamber and heated and pressurized for lamination. To preheat.

[0007]

If the object to be laminated is preheated before laminating, the temperature difference between the substrate and the sealing member can be reduced as compared with the case without preheating.

By the way, in order to pressurize and heat the object to be laminated heated by the heater panel after being preheated by the preheater, the diaphragm provided in the upper chamber is expanded, and the diaphragm is brought into contact with the object to be laminated. I'm trying to do it.

[0009] However, the diaphragm is usually
Since the temperature is considerably lower than that of the heater panel, when the diaphragm is expanded and brought into contact with the object to be laminated, the diaphragm absorbs the heat of the laminate.

[0010] For this reason, a considerable temperature difference occurs between the surface side of the laminated body that contacts the heater panel and the surface side that contacts the diaphragm. Therefore, the substrate is warped due to the temperature difference, and may be damaged or uneven in temperature due to being heated under pressure in that state, and particularly when the temperature is uneven, the heat shrinkage of the sealing member becomes non-uniform. Wrinkles may occur.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method of sealing a solar cell module in which an object to be laminated of a solar cell module and a sealing member can be uniformly heated and laminated.

[0012]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a lower chamber having a mounting plate provided with a heater, and an inflatable diaphragm provided so as to be opened and closed relatively to the lower chamber. A method for sealing a solar cell module, comprising laminating an object to be laminated with a solar cell module and a sealing member mounted on the mounting board, comprising: Sealing the solar cell module, comprising the steps of: supplying the object to be mounted on the mounting board; and pressing and heating the object to be laminated by expanding the diaphragm. There is a stopping method.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a lower chamber having a mounting plate provided with a heater, and an upper chamber having an inflatable diaphragm and provided so as to be opened and closed relatively to the lower chamber. A method for sealing a solar cell module, comprising laminating a body to be laminated with a solar cell module and a sealing member mounted on the mounting board, wherein the diaphragm is preheated to a predetermined temperature,
Supplying the object to be laminated on the mounting board,
The method includes a step of closing the lower chamber and the upper chamber, depressurizing the inside of these chambers and degassing the sealing member, and a step of expanding the diaphragm to pressurize and heat the object to be laminated. In the method for sealing a solar cell module.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the diaphragm includes:
2. The method for sealing a solar cell module according to claim 1, wherein the method is preheated by expanding and contacting the mounting plate.

According to the present invention, the diaphragm is preheated to a predetermined temperature before the object to be laminated is pressurized and heated. In addition, it is possible to prevent a large temperature difference from being generated between the diaphragm and the surface pressed by the diaphragm.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The laminated body 1 according to the present invention is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, a glass substrate 3 constituting a single crystal type solar cell module 2 is provided. On this substrate 3,
A sheet-shaped first sealing member 4 made of a material such as EVA or EVAT; a plurality of semiconductor cells 6 connected by inner lead wires and having electrodes 5 at both ends; And a back surface protection sheet 8 made of aluminum foil and a fluororesin or the like.

The object to be laminated 1 is integrally laminated by a sealing device 11 shown in FIGS. The sealing device 11 has a lower chamber 12 and an upper chamber 13 that is driven to open and close by a drive mechanism (not shown).

In the lower chamber 12, a mounting board 14 to which the object 1 to be laminated is supplied is provided. The mounting board 14 has a built-in heater 15 so that the body 1 to be laminated supplied to the mounting board 14 can be heated. In this embodiment, the object to be laminated 1 is supplied so that the substrate 3 faces down and is bonded to the mounting board 14. Further, a lower suction hole 17 is formed in one side wall of the lower chamber 12, and a lower suction pump 16 is connected to the lower suction hole 17 by piping.

The upper chamber 13 has a diaphragm 2 having a peripheral portion hermetically fixed to an inner peripheral wall of the upper chamber 13.
1 is provided. On one side wall of the upper chamber 13,
An upper suction hole 22 communicating with a space separated by the diaphragm 21 is formed. This upper suction hole 22
Is connected to an upper suction pump 23 by piping.

In order to laminate the body 11 to be laminated, that is, to seal the semiconductor cell 6 by the sealing device 11 having the above structure, first, as shown in FIG. For example, the heater 15 provided on the mounting board 14 is energized, and the lower suction pump 16 is operated to reduce the pressure in the lower chamber 12.

When the pressure in the lower chamber 12 is reduced, the diaphragm 21 expands into the lower chamber 12 having a low pressure and comes into contact with the upper surface of the mounting board 14 as shown in FIG. Since the mounting plate 14 is heated by the heater 15, the diaphragm 21 in contact with the upper surface is also heated.

The diaphragm 21 is formed of the above-mentioned body 1 to be laminated.
Is heated to approximately the same temperature as the temperature for laminating. In other words, the temperature at which the laminate 1 is laminated is a temperature at which the sealing members 4 and 7 undergo a cross-linking reaction in all regions, and the sealing members 4 and 7 are thermally decomposed and the decomposition gas does not cause a foaming phenomenon. It is performed at about 150 ° C. Therefore, the diaphragm 21 is heated to about 150 ° C.

The sealing members 4 and 7 used for the laminated body 1 are formed into a sheet and then heat-cured. The temperature for heat curing is 40 ~
It has been experimentally confirmed that shrinkage at the time of lamination hardly occurs at 60 ° C. for 6 to 12 hours.

As a result, the sealing members 4 and 7 are gently shrunk by removing the internal stress, and at the same time, the excess compound is removed. Is hardly changed.

If the diaphragm 21 is heated,
As shown in the figure, after the depressurized state of the upper chamber 13 is released, the upper chamber 13 is raised, and
Is supplied onto the mounting board 14 of the lower chamber 12.

Next, as shown in FIG.
When the pressure in the chamber 2 and the upper chamber 13 is reduced and the gas contained in the EVAs 4 and 7 is removed, the reduced pressure in the upper chamber 13 is released as shown in FIG. As a result, the diaphragm 21 provided in the upper chamber 13 expands downward and comes into pressure contact with the object 1 to be laminated placed on the mounting board 14. And pressurized and heated to integrate, ie, laminate. This laminate has a temperature of 150 ° C
The time is about 10 minutes.

At the time of laminating the body 1 to be laminated, the body 1 to be laminated is heated from both upper and lower surfaces by the mounting plate 14 provided with the heater 15 and the preheated diaphragm 21.

As a result, the temperature difference between the upper surface side and the lower surface side in the thickness direction of the body 1 to be laminated is almost eliminated, so that the substrate 3 warps due to the temperature difference as in the prior art, and is broken or damaged by pressing. The distribution becomes uneven and the sealing members 4
The cross-linking reaction of No. 7 can be prevented from occurring sufficiently and reliably.

Further, the sealing members 4 and 7 are heat-cured in advance. Therefore, even if heated to about 150 ° C. during lamination, it hardly deforms, so that it is possible to prevent the occurrence of wrinkles and the displacement of the wiring of the semiconductor cell 6.

After the object to be laminated 1 is thus laminated, the depressurized state of the lower chamber 12 is released as shown in FIG. 6, and the diaphragm 21 expanded downward is contracted to the original state, and then the upper part is contracted. The sealing device 11 is opened by raising the chamber 13, the laminated object 1 is taken out from the mounting board 14, and the above-described steps are repeated to laminate a new laminated object 1.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be variously modified. For example, although a crystalline solar cell module has been illustrated as an example of an object to be laminated, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to an amorphous silicon solar cell module using amorphous silicon.

Although the upper chamber of the sealing device is opened and closed with respect to the lower chamber, the lower chamber may be opened and closed, or both may be moved up and down to open and close. Any configuration may be used as long as the upper chamber can be opened and closed relatively to the chamber.

[0034]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the object to be laminated placed on the placing board is heated by the diaphragm and laminated, the diaphragm is preheated to a predetermined temperature. .

Therefore, it is possible to prevent a large temperature difference from being generated between the surface of the object to be laminated which is in contact with the mounting plate and the surface which is pressed by the diaphragm. It is possible to prevent occurrence of damage to the object to be laminated and non-uniform heating temperature.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, before laminating the object to be laminated, the inside of the chamber is decompressed to deaerate from the filler.

Therefore, the object to be laminated can be laminated without bubbles remaining in the filler.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the diaphragm is preheated by the heater provided on the mounting board.

Since the heater is naturally necessary for laminating the laminate, it is economical to use the heater without having to provide a dedicated heater for preheating the diaphragm.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a state in which a sealing device according to an embodiment of the present invention is closed.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a state in which an upper chamber is depressurized in order to preheat a diaphragm.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of a state in which a body to be laminated is supplied to a mounting board.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a state in which a lower chamber and an upper chamber are depressurized in order to degas the EVA.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a state where the depressurized state of the upper chamber is released and the diaphragm is expanded downward in order to laminate the object to be laminated.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a state where the sealing device is opened and the laminated object to be laminated is taken out from the mounting board.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing a schematic configuration of a laminated body.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Laminated body 2 ... Solar cell module 4, 7 ... EVA (sealing member) 12 ... Lower chamber 13 ... Upper chamber 14 ... Mounting plate 15 ... Heater 21 ... Diaphragm

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A lower chamber having a mounting board provided with a heater, and an upper chamber having an inflatable diaphragm and provided to be openable and closable relative to the lower chamber. A method for sealing a solar cell module, comprising laminating an object to be laminated with a solar cell module and a sealing member mounted on a table, wherein the diaphragm is preheated to a predetermined temperature; and A method for sealing a solar cell module, comprising: a step of supplying an object to be laminated; and a step of expanding the diaphragm to heat the object to be laminated under pressure. 2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising a lower chamber having a mounting board provided with a heater, and an upper chamber having an inflatable diaphragm and provided to be openable and closable relative to the lower chamber. A method for sealing a solar cell module, comprising laminating an object to be laminated with a solar cell module and a sealing member mounted on a table, wherein the diaphragm is preheated to a predetermined temperature; and A step of supplying the object to be laminated; a step of closing the lower chamber and the upper chamber to depressurize the inside of these chambers and deaerate the sealing member; and a step of expanding the diaphragm to heat the object to be laminated under pressure. And a method for sealing a solar cell module. 3. The method for sealing a solar cell module according to claim 1, wherein the diaphragm is preheated by being expanded and brought into contact with the mounting plate.