Patent DE-102009031233-A1 (DE)
Title: Device to structure thin-film solar cell module, where structural lines are introduced in module parallel to its transverse edges in rectangular form by laser, includes loading- and unloading station, processing station, and optical device
Inventor: LANGEBACH JAN
IPC: B23K26/40
Filed: 2009-06-26
Abstract: The device for structuring thin-film solar cell modules, where the structural lines are introduced in the module parallel to its transverse edges in a rectangular form by a laser, comprises a loading station (1), an unloading station (3), a processing station (2) arranged between the loading station and the unloading station, which has a working table in a processing plane (8), an optical device having a laser arranged below the working table, a scanner arranged downstream to the laser in a beam direction, a beam expansion and focusing optics, and a transport device. The device for structuring thin-film solar cell modules, where the structural lines are introduced in the module parallel to its transverse edges in a rectangular form by a laser, comprises a loading station (1), an unloading station (3), a processing station (2) arranged between the loading station and the unloading station, which has a working table in a processing plane (8), an optical device having a laser arranged below the working table, a scanner arranged downstream to the laser in a beam direction, a beam expansion and focusing optics, which is present in a beam path between the laser and the processing plane and focuses a laser beam emerging from the laser in dependent of a deflection angle of the scanner in the processing plane, and a transport device (4) that is designed to transport the module into the processing plane over the assigned working table in a transport direction in the direction of its longitudinal edges. The scanner is a single-axis scanner with a scanning mirror, which is tiltable around the axis, to guide the emerging laser beam vertical to the axis in a scanning direction over the module scanned with alternating sense of direction. The axis with the transport direction has a scanning angle of 90-180[deg] . The scanning mirror and the transport direction are controllable, so that the scanning speed and the transport speed are coordinated to each other in dependent of the scanning angle, so that the laser beam generates a structure line parallel to the transverse edge of the module. The loading station and the unloading station have supporting surfaces in a supporting plane, which deeply lies in a ratio to the processing plane, and a lifter with supporting elements, on which the resting module is highly lifted or lowered between the supporting plane and the processing plane. The supporting elements of the lifter are formed as conveyor belt to transport the lifted module into the processing station up to in a starting position for processing. The working table is formed from table elements, which are arranged and placed to each other, so that a gap is formed between the two adjacent table elements and runs in the direction of the scanning direction and the laser beam is impinged onto the module in an unhindered manner. The table elements are adjustable to each other, where the course of the gap is adapted to optionally changing scanning direction. The optical device is a first optical device, which includes laser, beam expansion and focusing optics and single-axis scanner and is arranged onto a pivoting table that is pivotable around a vertical pivot axis to set the scanning direction. The first optical device, whose axes are aligned in same direction, is provided to produce structural lines parallel to each other. The optical device is a second optical device, which includes laser, beam expansion and focusing optics and second single-axis scanner. A deflection mirror is arranged downstream to the beam expansion and focusing optics to couple the laser beam alternatively in first- or second single-axis scanner and is pivotable in two end positions.