JP2004311571A - Method of manufacturing solar cell module - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to perform a laminating process by finishing a light receiving surface of a solar cell module to a flat surface in a state where a module constituent material is arranged face up in a processing space of a vacuum laminating apparatus.
A thin-film solar cell includes a sheet-like sealing adhesive and a surface protection material on the light-receiving surface side, and a module adhesive such as a sealing adhesive and a back-side reinforcing material on the non-light-receiving surface side. In a method for manufacturing a battery module, a vacuum laminating apparatus 9 composed of a substrate 10, a frame 11 for deaeration, and a flexible diaphragm 12 is used, and the module constituent material 8 is superposed and arranged on the apparatus to reduce a processing space. At the time of evacuation and heating for lamination, a flat contact plate (for example, aluminum) is disposed on the most light receiving surface side via the release sheet 16 against the module constituent material arranged in the processing space by face-up lamination with the light receiving surface facing upward. The plate 17 is pressed to perform a lamination process.
[Selection diagram] Fig. 1

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a solar cell module in which a thin film solar cell is provided with a surface protective material and a back surface reinforcing material to enhance weather resistance and mechanical strength, and more particularly to a vacuum laminating method for module components.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, the use of clean energy has been promoted to promote the use of clean energy, and the use of solar cells has been spreading mainly for private residences. Recently, as solar cells that are advantageous in terms of lightness, thinness, large area and mass productivity, 2. Description of the Related Art Thin film solar cells in which a photoelectric conversion element is formed on a film-shaped plastic substrate have been widely used. By the way, since the thin-film solar cell itself has little mechanical strength and weather resistance, the surface of the solar cell is covered with a sealing adhesive and a surface protective material, and a sealing adhesive and a reinforcing material are applied on the back side. In addition, the substrate type solar cell module configured to enhance weather resistance and mechanical strength is adapted to be used outdoors.
[0003]
3 and 4 schematically show the substrate type solar cell module and the thin film solar cell described above. In each of the figures, reference numeral 1 denotes an amorphous photoelectric conversion element ( Thin-film solar cells having an amorphous silicon pin junction formed thereon; 2, 3 are sheet-shaped sealing adhesives (for example, EAV resin) that are bonded to both sides of solar cell 1 for sealing; A weather-resistant film-like surface protective material (for example, ETFE resin) laminated on the surface (front surface) side, 5 is a back reinforcing material, for example, a galvalume steel plate (registered trademark) having a thickness of about 0.4 mm, 6 is a thin film solar cell 1 is an internal lead wire (for example, a solder-plated copper foil plate) connected to the positive and negative current collecting electrodes 1a and 1b and taken out of the module, and 7 is a wiring route of the internal lead wire 6. It is an adhesive insulating tape which was stuck me. In addition, a resin sheet (for example, a DX sheet) may be used as the back surface reinforcing member 5 instead of the steel plate.
[0004]
Further, a vacuum laminating apparatus is used as a method of assembling the solar cell module by laminating the above-mentioned module constituent materials, and after the above-mentioned module constituent material 8 is arranged in a processing space of the vacuum laminating apparatus, the processing space is changed. There is known a manufacturing method in which a solar cell module is molded by vacuum evacuation, heating and laminating integrally (for example, see Patent Document 1).
[0005]
Next, the configuration of a vacuum laminating apparatus used for manufacturing a solar cell module will be described with reference to FIGS. That is, as shown in the figure, the vacuum laminating apparatus 9 includes a substrate 10 made of a flat metal plate, a degassing frame 11 erected to surround the outer periphery of the upper surface of the substrate 10, and And a sheet-like diaphragm (upper lid) 12 made of a flexible material (for example, silicone rubber) for sealing the laminating space. Here, the deaeration frame 11 is a sheet metal product having a triangular cross-section, the outer flange portion of which is joined to the upper surface of the substrate 10, and an exhaust air flow is provided between the inner peripheral end and the substrate 10. A vacuum pump 14 is connected via a valve 13 to an exhaust port 11a drawn out from the peripheral wall of the frame 11 to the outside. The degassing frame 11 is welded to the substrate 10 (for example, TIG welding), and a sealant material is used between the outer peripheral flange portion of the frame 11 and the substrate 10 to further secure airtightness. Hermetically sealed. In order to prevent the gap formed between the tip of the frame 11 and the substrate 10 from being crushed by the deformation of the frame due to the vacuum pressure, a permeable sheet (for example, knitted with a stainless wire) It is laid with a plain weave wire mesh interposed.
[0006]
Next, a procedure for manufacturing the solar cell module shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 using the vacuum laminating apparatus 9 will be described with reference to FIG. First, a breathable release sheet (PFA sheet) 16 is laid on the substrate 10 whose outer periphery is surrounded by the deaeration frame 11, and the constituent material 8 of the solar cell module described in FIG. And stack them in order. Further, another release sheet 16 is laid thereon, and a diaphragm 12 is covered as an upper lid so as to cover the entire periphery of the deaeration frame 11.
[0007]
In this set state, the vacuum laminating apparatus 9 is carried into the heating furnace, and the vacuum pump 14 is connected to the exhaust port 11 a of the degassing frame 11 via the valve 13. Subsequently, the vacuum pump 14 is started, and the laminating space (the space surrounded by the substrate 10, the degassing frame 11 and the diaphragm 12) in which the module constituent materials are arranged is evacuated, and the space between the laminated constituent materials is reduced. The air remaining in the furnace is degassed and discharged out of the system, and is heated at a furnace temperature (about 150 ° C.) so that the sealing adhesive is hardened.
[0008]
By the above-described evacuation, the diaphragm 12 is brought into close contact with the peripheral surface of the frame 11 to reduce the pressure in the lamination processing space, and is sandwiched between the substrate 10 and the diaphragm 12 by a differential pressure from the ambient pressure (atmospheric pressure). The pressing force P is applied to the laminated body of the module constituent materials 8 thus formed, and at the same time, the sealing adhesive is cured by heating from the heating furnace, so that the respective materials are integrally laminated. Then, when the curing time of the sealing material has elapsed, the valve 13 is closed, the laminating apparatus 9 is taken out of the heating furnace while the processing space of the laminating apparatus 9 is maintained at a vacuum pressure, and naturally cooled, and finally the valve 13 is opened. The processing space is returned to the atmospheric pressure, the diaphragm 12 is removed, and a completed solar cell module subjected to lamination processing is taken out.
[0009]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-11-87743
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, when the laminating process of the solar cell module is performed using the vacuum laminating apparatus 9, the arrangement method of the module constituent materials 8 set in the processing space is as follows. And a face-down stack in which the light-receiving surface is oriented downward.
[0011]
Here, when the light receiving surface is arranged face-down lamination with the light receiving surface facing downward, the most light receiving surface side of the module component 8 is pressed against the flat substrate 10 by the laminating process as shown in FIG. Therefore, in the completed state after the lamination, the light receiving surface (the surface of the surface protection material) is finished flat.
[0012]
On the other hand, when the light-receiving surface is arranged in a face-up stack with the light-receiving surface facing upward, the diaphragm 12 that can be flexibly deformed by vacuum evacuation is pressed against the most light-receiving surface of the module constituent material 8. The module does not have a flat light-receiving surface. In the structure in which the internal lead wire 6 of the foil conductor is overlapped and wired on the film substrate of the thin-film solar cell 1 as shown in FIG. 4, a step in the thickness direction remains between the internal lead wire 6 and the photoelectric conversion element region. For this reason, in the state after the lamination process, a local bulge (convex portion) due to a step with the internal lead wire 6 is generated on the light receiving surface side (the surface of the surface protection material), and the appearance of the solar cell module product In addition to impairing the solar cell module, the light-receiving surface of the module is scratched when the solar cell module is handled, and the light-receiving surface of the module is damaged, thereby deteriorating the weather resistance.
[0013]
On the other hand, when considering the setting operation of sequentially arranging the constituent materials 8 of the solar cell module in the processing space of the vacuum laminating apparatus, in the case of arranging by face-up lamination, first, the back surface reinforcing material (opaque material) 5 is used. The sheet-shaped sealing adhesive 3, the thin-film solar cell 1, the transparent sealing adhesive 2, and the surface protection material 4 are sequentially placed at predetermined overlapping positions and stacked thereon. In the process, the work can be performed while seeing through the sealing adhesive 2 and the surface protection material 4 and visually checking the relative overlapping state with the thin film solar cell 1.
[0014]
On the other hand, when face-down lamination is performed, the transparent surface protection material 4 and the sealing adhesive 2 are disposed first on the substrate 10 of the vacuum laminating apparatus, and the thin-film solar cells 1 are arranged thereon. Finally, an opaque back surface reinforcing material 5 is provided. Therefore, in a state in which the respective constituent materials are set in an overlapping manner, the back surface reinforcing member 5 overlaps the uppermost position, so that it is not possible to visually check the relative overlapping state with the thin film solar cell 1. For this reason, even if a relative displacement occurs between the sealing adhesive 2 superimposed on the thin film solar cell 1 and the back surface reinforcing material 5 and the solar cell slightly protrudes to the side, this is visually checked. It is difficult to perform the lamination, and if the lamination is performed as it is, the sealing of the module may be incomplete.
[0015]
For this reason, in the laminating process of the solar cell module, it is preferable to arrange the module constituent materials in the processing space of the vacuum laminating apparatus in a face-up lamination state. However, as described above, when the module constituent material is face-up laminated and laminated, there is an advantage that the setting state on the laminating apparatus can be visually checked, but there is a contradictory problem that the light receiving surface of the solar cell module is not finished flat. Will remain.
[0016]
The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems, and to laminate a module constituent material face-up when laminating a constituent material of a solar cell module using a vacuum laminating apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a solar cell module improved so that the light receiving surface of the module can be finished to a flat surface by lamination even when the module is disposed in a processing space of a laminating apparatus.
[0017]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a sheet-like sealing adhesive and a surface protective material are laminated on the light receiving surface side of a thin film solar cell, and a sealing adhesive and a back surface reinforcing material are laminated on the non-light receiving surface side. Using a vacuum laminating apparatus having a configuration in which a substrate is surrounded by a degassing frame and a flexible diaphragm is placed thereon, the vacuum laminating apparatus comprising: After laminating the constituent materials of the solar cell module in a laminating space surrounded by the substrate, the frame, and the diaphragm, and then arranging the laminating space by vacuuming and heating, the laminating process is performed.
In the vacuum laminating apparatus, the module constituent material is arranged in the lamination processing space by face-up lamination with the light receiving surface of the thin-film solar cell facing upward, and a rigid flat surface is applied on the most light receiving surface. The lamination process is performed by pressing the plate material (claim 1).
[0018]
Thereby, at the time of lamination processing, a rigid flat plate member comes into contact with the most light-receiving surface of the solar cell module, and a pressing force is applied from behind this plate member via the diaphragm of the laminating apparatus, and this state is changed. The sealing material is hardened by the heat treatment while keeping it. Therefore, in the state after the lamination, the light receiving surface of the solar cell module is finished to be a flat surface.
[0019]
Further, according to the present invention, the following method is added to the implementation of the method.
[0020]
(1) A laminating process is performed by interposing a release sheet between the surface protecting material of the module component and the backing plate (Claim 2), and the module and the backing plate are adhered by the adhesive that has flowed out during the processing. Try to prevent sticking.
[0021]
(2) A metal plate, a glass plate, or a heat-resistant reinforced plastic plate having high rigidity is used for the backing plate material in order to prevent the plate itself from being deformed by receiving the vacuum pressure during the laminating process. Practically, the Young's modulus is 9000 N / mm ² or more (claim 3). The value of this Young's modulus is equivalent to the Young's modulus of FRP (reinforced plastic) in which glass is mixed as a reinforcing material in an epoxy resin, and it is possible to guarantee that the light receiving surface of the solar cell module is finished flat.
[0022]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the examples shown in FIGS. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a solar cell module is being laminated using a vacuum laminating apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating module constituent materials set in a laminating apparatus by face-up lamination. In the drawings of the embodiment, members corresponding to FIGS. 3 to 7 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.
[0023]
In this embodiment, first, a release sheet 16 (for example, a PFA sheet) is laid on a substrate 10 for a vacuum laminating apparatus 9, and each material of the module structural material 8 is face-up laminated thereon as shown in FIG. Back reinforcing material 5, sealing adhesive 3, thin film solar cell 1, sealing adhesive 2, surface protective material 4 are arranged in this order in a superposed manner, and a release sheet is provided on the upper surface (light receiving surface side) of module constituent material 8. A rigid flat backing plate material (for example, an aluminum plate with a plate pressure of 1 mm) 17 is placed on top of the diaphragm 16, and the diaphragm 12 as an upper lid is finally covered.
[0024]
Subsequently, the vacuum laminating apparatus 9 is carried into the heating furnace in the same manner as described with reference to FIG. 7, where the pressure in the lamination processing space is reduced to 1330 Pa (10 Torr) by evacuation, and the furnace temperature is reduced to 155 while maintaining this vacuum pressure. The resultant is heated at 30 ° C. for 30 minutes, and the module constituting material 8 is integrally laminated to produce a solar cell module (module size 500 × 200 mm).
[0025]
In this method, during the laminating process, a flat rigid backing plate 17 is pressed against the light receiving surface side of the module constituent material 8 to evacuate, and while maintaining this state, the sealing adhesive is cured to laminate each constituent material. I do. As a result, even if there is a step between the internal lead wire 6 attached to the film substrate of the thin-film solar cell 1 and the photoelectric conversion element surface as described with reference to FIGS. 2 is absorbed by flowing, and the light receiving surface of the laminated solar cell module comes into contact with the backing plate member 17 to be finished to a flat surface.
[0026]
In addition, as the backing plate member 17, a glass plate or an epoxy resin plate (FRP plate) containing glass fiber may be adopted in addition to the aluminum plate. In addition, the backing plate 17 is made of a rigid material having a Young's modulus of 900 N / mm ² or more so as not to be deformed by the pressing force due to the evacuation. The backing plate member 17 is placed on the module constituent material 8 as a separate component from the diaphragm 12 of the vacuum laminating device 9 and is also attached to the inner surface of the diaphragm 12 in advance, and the module constituent material 8 is arranged in the lamination processing space. Thereafter, when the diaphragm 12 is put thereon, the patch plate 17 may be overlapped.
[0027]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, a sheet-shaped sealing adhesive and a surface protection material are laminated on the light receiving surface side of the thin-film solar cell, and a sealing adhesive and a back surface reinforcing material are laminated and integrated on the non-light receiving surface side. A method for manufacturing a solar cell module, which comprises forming a delamination frame around a substrate, and using a vacuum laminating apparatus having a flexible diaphragm covered thereon. After laminating the module constituent materials in the laminating space surrounded by the diaphragm and then arranging the laminating space and performing the laminating process by heating, the laminating process is performed with respect to the vacuum laminating apparatus. By placing the module components in the laminating space by face-up lamination with the light-receiving surface of the thin-film solar cell facing upwards, a rigid flat backing plate is placed on the most light-receiving surface side. By that to perform the lamination by applying to,
When the constituent materials of the module are stacked and placed in the processing space of the vacuum laminator, the transparent material on the light-receiving surface side is seen through from above, and the thin-film solar cell and the sealing adhesive and the surface protection It is possible to visually check whether the overlap with the material is appropriate and whether there is any misalignment. During the lamination process, a rigid flat plate is pressed against the light-receiving surface of the module to apply vacuum and heat. Thereby, the most light receiving surface of the solar cell module can be finished flat.
[0028]
In addition, since the release sheet is interposed between the backing plate material and the module component material during the laminating process, it is possible to prevent the backing plate material from binding to the light receiving surface of the solar cell module.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a view showing a state in which a solar cell module is being laminated using a vacuum laminating apparatus. FIG. 2 is a module set in the vacuum laminating apparatus of FIG. FIG. 3 schematically shows constituent materials. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view schematically showing a laminated structure of a solar cell module. FIG. 4 is a plan view of the thin-film solar cell in FIG. 3 FIG. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a configuration of a main body of a vacuum laminating apparatus used for laminating a module. FIG. 6 is a sectional side view in which a diaphragm is combined with the main body of FIG. Sectional side view showing the state of lamination processing performed by arranging constituent members.
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Thin-film solar cell 2, 3 Sealing adhesive material 4 Surface protection material 5 Back surface reinforcing material 8 Module constituent material 9 Vacuum laminating apparatus 10 Substrate 11 Deaeration frame 11a Exhaust port 12 Diaphragm 16 Release sheet 17 Patch plate

Claims (3)

A method of manufacturing a solar cell module, comprising laminating a sheet-like sealing adhesive and a surface protective material on a light receiving surface side of a thin film solar cell and a sealing adhesive and a back surface reinforcing material on a non-light receiving surface side and integrally laminating the same. A vacuum laminating apparatus having a structure in which a substrate is surrounded by a degassing frame and a flexible diaphragm is placed thereon, and in a lamination processing space surrounded by the substrate, the frame, and the diaphragm of the apparatus. When the above-mentioned module constituent materials are arranged one on top of the other, when performing the laminating process by evacuating and heating the laminating process space,
For the above vacuum laminating apparatus, the module constituent material is arranged in the lamination processing space by face-up lamination with the light receiving surface of the thin film solar cell facing upward, and a flat backing plate material having rigidity on the most light receiving surface side And performing a laminating process by pressing. The method for manufacturing a solar cell module according to claim 1, wherein a laminating process is performed by interposing a release sheet between a surface protection material and a backing plate material of the module constituent member. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the backing plate is a metal plate, a glass plate or a heat-resistant reinforced plastic plate, and has a Young's modulus of 9000 N / mm ² or more.

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