The functional film unit of Danish manufacturing equipment producer Grafisk Maskinfabrik (GM) is currently offering turnkey roll-to-roll pilot production lines for organic photovoltaics (OPV) and perovskite solar cell fabrication that feature slot-die coating.
The tools emerged from a longtime collaboration with Sciprios, a German university spinoff specialized in lab automation and measurement equipment.
Demand for thin film roll-to-roll production equipment is growing as it can be used by developers of solar PV, fuel cells, batteries and printed electronics.
“Currently, the market is very excited about the recent large advances in both OPV and perovskite technology. Many startups but also established silicon solar companies are entering the race to bring the technology to the market,” Tobias Stubhahn, founder of Sciprios and technical sales manager at GM Functionals told pv magazine. “A good portion of our customers are in solar PV research, but also batteries. Hydrogen technology and printed electronics are important markets for us.”
The OPV and perovskite pilot production equipment from GM Functionals includes slot-die coating, printing, structuring, backend and module processing. The capacity of the equipment ranges from 100 kW to 5 MW of PV products.
There are three models in the current range. The flagship, Flexicoat, the compact Testcoat, and Pilotcoat. They support a range of web widths, speeds, and curing options. The Testcoat model is a slot die coater and curing tool with a web width of 15 cm. With a 60 cm x 60 cm cabinet footprint, it is suitable for tabletop placement and glovebox integration.
The FlexiCoat has a web width of 33 cm and a coating width of 30 cm with a processing speed of up to 30 m/min. The PilotCoat system comes in a variety of sizes to support roll-to-roll web widths from 25 cm to 35 cm, it supports two curing methods, has a processing speed of 40m/ min, and also supports a range of deposition materials from conductive inks to adhesives, according to the manufacturer.
Equipment with larger capacities can be ordered, as can integrations with tools made by external manufacturers. “We are an integrator for many third-party components and tools in our lines. You name it, we can integrate it,” said Stubhahn.
A recent integration example is a snow-jet cleaning tool developed by Acp Systems, which was validated as an effective tool for OPV and perovskite electrode deburring in a recent project collaboration between Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Acp Systems, and Sciprios.
Sciprios was founded in 2018 as a spinoff of the Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research and the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nuremberg for Renewable Energies. It produces lab automation equipment such as automated spin coating and doctor blading tools for solutions-based thin film fabrication, ink handling tools, as well as substrate annealing robots, materials acceleration platforms, and integrated optoelectrical measurement tools.
GM Functionals supplies equipment for spray coating, inkjet printing, blade coating, doctor blade coating tools, as well as laser processing equipment, die cutters, and laminators for functional materials.
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