Abstract:
A solar module device and edge sealing coating method thereof are provided, which adopt a light curable adhesive to replace conventional hot melt glue and produce an unexpected effect, so as to uniformly and precisely coat the adhesive on an edge area of a substrate assembly and further reduce the cost.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to China Application Serial Number 201010222552.9, filed Jul. 6, 2010, which is herein incorporated by reference. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    1. Field of Invention 
         [0003]    The present invention relates to an edge sealing coating method. More particularly, the present invention relates to an edge sealing coating method of a solar module device. 
         [0004]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0005]    In the prior art, after a solar cell module is fabricated, in order to prevent moisture from penetrating into the solar cell module through its edges, mostly, hot melt glue is adopted to perform an edge sealing coating process. Specifically, the hot melt glue is normally used as an adhesive. After being heated, the hot melt glue is coated on the edges of two overlapped glass substrates (or a glass substrate and a back plate). After being cooled down, the hot melt glue is cured and agglutinates the edges of the two overlapped glass substrates, so as to prevent moisture from penetrating into the interior of the solar cell module through the clearance. 
         [0006]    However, a hot melt glue coating machine with necessary heating equipment is heavy and is hard to be controlled, and meanwhile a glue gun cannot be directly controlled manually due to over-high temperature. Furthermore, since the hot melt glue needs to be heated and itself has high viscosity and the hot melt glue gun cannot have an injection orifice as fine as a needle tip, the precision of coating cannot be ensured. 
         [0007]    Due to the foregoing reasons, a conventional technique using the hot melt glue as an adhesive for performing an edge sealing substrate assembly is heavy and clumsy in operation and lacks flexibility, and also lacks coating precision. Particularly, when two overlapped large glass substrates (such as the glass substrates of the solar module device) are bonded as a substrate to assembly, the edges of the substrate assembly are easy to be tilted due to its large area, and thus it is difficult to coat the adhesive therein uniformly on the edges of the substrate assembly. 
         [0008]    If the adhesive is not uniformly coated on the edges of the substrate assembly, the edges of the substrate assembly cannot be sealed, and thus the moisture will penetrate and influence the power generation efficiency of the solar module device. Thus, the yield is reduced and the manufacturing cost is accordingly increased. 
         [0009]    Therefore, there is a need to develop a technique of uniformly coating the adhesive on the edges of the substrate assembly. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0010]    The summary aims to provide a brief description of the disclosure so that readers can understand the disclosure fundamentally. The summary does not describe the disclosure completely, and does not intend to specify the important/critical elements of the embodiments of the present invention or limit the scope of the present invention. 
         [0011]    According to an aspect of the present invention, a solar module device is provided, and includes: a first glass substrate; a solar cell layer formed on the first glass substrate; an encapsulating material layer disposed on the solar cell layer; a second glass substrate covering the encapsulating material layer, wherein the first glass substrate and the second glass substrate are bonded by a light curable adhesive coated on an edge area of the first glass substrate and the second glass substrate, so as to seal a sandwiched space containing the solar cell layer and the encapsulating material layer between the first glass substrate and the second glass substrate, and the light curable adhesive is cured by irradiation of a light source having a specific wavelength. 
         [0012]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, a solar module device is provided, in which the edges of the first glass substrate and the is second glass substrate are with round angles, the edge area formed by overlapping and connecting the edges of the first glass substrate and the second glass substrate integrally forms a V-shaped groove, and the light curable adhesive is coated on the V-shaped groove by using a glue gun head of a glue gun. 
         [0013]    According to another embodiment of the present invention, a solar module device is provided, wherein the light curable adhesive is a photo-curing resin. 
         [0014]    According to another aspect of the present invention, an edge sealing coating method of a solar module device is provided, and includes the following steps: forming a solar cell layer on a first glass substrate; disposing an encapsulating material layer on the solar cell layer; covering the encapsulating material layer with a second glass substrate; coating a light curable adhesive on an edge area of the first glass substrate and the second glass substrate; and irradiating the light curable adhesive by using a light source having a specific wavelength, such that the light curable adhesive is cured to seal a sandwiched space containing the solar cell layer and the encapsulating material layer between the first glass substrate and the second glass substrate. 
         [0015]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, an edge sealing coating method of a solar module device is provided, wherein in the aforementioned step of coating the light curable adhesive, a glue gun head of a glue gun is used to coat the light curable adhesive on the edge area of the first glass substrate and the second glass substrate. 
         [0016]    According to another embodiment of the present invention, an edge sealing coating method of a solar module device is provided, wherein in the is above step of coating the light curable adhesive, the light curable adhesive is a photo-curing resin. 
         [0017]    These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0018]    The above and other objectives, features, advantages and embodiments of the present invention can be more fully understood with reference to the accompanying drawings as follows: 
           [0019]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a solar module device according to an embodiment of the present invention; and 
           [0020]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view of an edge sealing glue head of the solar module device of  FIG. 1  on which edge sealing coating has been performed according to another embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0021]    To make the contents of the present invention more thorough and complete, the following illustrative description is given with regard to the implementation aspects and embodiments of the present invention, which is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. The features of the embodiments and the steps of the method and their sequences that constitute and implement the embodiments are described. However, other embodiments may be used to achieve the same or equivalent functions and step sequences. 
         [0022]      FIG. 1  is a schematic view of a solar module device according to an embodiment of the present invention. A solar cell layer  115  is formed on a first glass substrate  114 , and then an encapsulating material layer  117 , for example, ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), is placed on the solar cell layer  115 . Thereafter, a second glass substrate  112  is placed on the encapsulating material layer  117 . Then, press bonding is performed to finish the pre-fabrication of the solar module device  100 . Thereafter, the post-processes of soldering, framing, etc. are carried out. 
         [0023]    In other words, the solar cell layer  115  and the encapsulating material layer  117  are contained in a sandwiched space between the first glass substrate  114  and the second glass substrate  112 . In order to seal the sandwiched space to prevent moisture penetration, a light curable adhesive  118  is coated on an edge area  116  of the first glass substrate  114  and the second glass substrate  112 , and then is irradiated by a light source  124  having a specific wavelength for curing the light curable adhesive  118 , thereby sealing the sandwiched space to seal the solar cell layer  115  and the encapsulating material layer  117  inside the sandwiched space. 
         [0024]    The edges of the first glass substrate  114  and the second glass substrate  112  may be with round angles, and the thickness of the solar cell layer  115  and the encapsulating material layer  117  is smaller than that of the first glass substrate  114  and the second glass substrate  112  (for illustration, the components of  FIG. 1  are not drawn to scale, and the solar cell layer  115  and the encapsulating material layer  117  are drawn thicker than actual layers), and thus an overlapped and connected edge area  116  integrally forms an approximately V-shaped groove. The light curable adhesive  118  is coated on the approximately V-shaped groove through a glue gun head  122  of a glue gun  120 , and is irradiated by a light source  124  having a specific wavelength for curing the light curable adhesive  118  on the V-shaped groove. The light curable adhesive  118  may be a photo-curing resin. 
         [0025]    As can be known from the above description, the present invention may omit the clumsy heating equipment and overcome the problem of over-high temperature and the difficulty in directly controlling the glue gun manually. Moreover, the light curable adhesive can be coated by a thin glue gun head, and thus the precision of coating is greatly improved. 
         [0026]    Therefore, the present invention has another advantage of using light and convenient coating equipment and precisely controlling the glue gun head, and thus the adhesive can be uniformly and precisely coated on the edges of the substrate assembly, and further the cost can be reduced. 
         [0027]    According to another aspect of the present invention, an edge sealing coating method for the solar module device is provided. 
         [0028]      FIG. 2  is a schematic view of an edge sealing glue head of the solar module device  100  of  FIG. 1  on which edge sealing coating has been performed according to another embodiment of the present invention. The solar module device  100  includes a substrate assembly  110  including a first glass substrate  114 , a solar cell layer  115 , an encapsulating material layer  117  and a second glass substrate  112  from bottom to top. 
         [0029]    The edge sealing glue head includes a glued frame  220  having a groove  222  along a length direction, and a fixing strip  224 , wherein the groove  222  has a first side edge  222   a , a second side edge  222   b  and a bottom  222   c ; and the fixing strip  224  is in an elongated shape and connected to the first side edge  222   a  of the groove  222  along the length direction of the glued frame  220 , thereby contacting the substrate assembly  110  which is inserted into the groove  222 . 
         [0030]    The fixing strip  224 , the groove  222  and the substrate assembly  110  collaboratively define a space  240  in a contact area  242  of the substrate assembly  110  and the glued frame  220 , and an adhesive may be filled in the space  240  for performing the edge sealing coating process on the edges of the substrate assembly  110 . 
         [0031]    Therefore, the present invention has an advantage of accurately defining the space  240  accommodating the adhesive by use of the fixing strip  224 , thereby precisely controlling the coating range and dosage of the adhesive. 
         [0032]    Likewise, the light curable adhesive may be a photo-curing resin. 
         [0033]    Optionally, the portion of the fixing strip  224  contacting the substrate assembly  110  may further include an elastic pad  225  which has elasticity for avoiding damaging the substrate assembly  110  when the substrate assembly  110  is being assembled into the groove  222 . 
         [0034]    When the substrate assembly  110  is being assembled into the groove  222 , the elastic pad  225  is placed in a rather high temperature environment, and thus the elastic bumper  225  is preferably a heat resistant material. 
         [0035]    Furthermore, a fixing strip  224  may be additionally attached to the groove  222 , and may be integrally formed with the groove  222  to become a portion of the groove  222 . The fixing strip  224  may also have the same material as that of the groove  222 . 
         [0036]    Optionally, the groove  222  may further include an obstruction block  226  disposed between the substrate assembly  110  and the bottom  222   c  of the groove  222 , thereby controlling a coating range of the adhesive on the bottom  222   c  of the groove  222 . 
         [0037]    Furthermore, the second side edge  222   b  of the groove  222  has a bevel  228  for allowing the substrate assembly  110  to be easily inserted into the groove  222  along the bevel  228 , thereby preventing the deformation of the substrate assembly  110 . 
         [0038]    Although the present invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. Various alternations and modifications can be made to these certain embodiments by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Such alternations and modifications are intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims.