Patent ID: 6841728

Claim:
A machine for the automated assembly of solar cells into strings, comprising: a computerized control system, an operator interface, a cell holding station for holding a quantity of said solar cells available for assembly, a pre-assembly cell inspection station for inspecting and passing or rejecting individual cells for further assembly, a rejected cell holding area, a tabbing material supply station for holding and supplying a continuous length of tabbing material for making tabs, a tab cut and crimp station for cutting and crimping said tabbing material into tabs, a string assembly station for assembling said cells and said tabs into a string, a transport mechanism configured with a cell pick and move tool head for picking up and moving said cells through said pre-assembly cell inspection station and placing said cells in sequence into one of said string assembly station and said rejected cell holding area, a tab transfer tool for moving pairs of said tabs in sequence into said string assembly station, a horizontally movable platen with individual cell gripping fixtures for moving said string from said string assembly station along a process path terminating at a post assembly string handling station, a soldering station in said process path comprising in sequence a preheat zone, a soldering zone and a cooling zone, at least one post assembly string inspection station incorporated with said post assembly string handling station, a rejected string holding area incorporated with said post assembly string handling station, an accepted string holding area incorporated with said post assembly string handling station, said platen configured on linear rails with step controllers for indexing said string in increments of cell pitch along said process path from said string assembly station through said soldering section to a post assembly string holding area in said post assembly string handling station, said post assembly string handling station configured with a vertically, horizontally and rotably movable string handling tool for gripping and moving individual said strings from said post assembly string holding area to said post assembly string inspection station and from there to one of said accepted string holding area and said rejected string holding area.