High-quality photovoltaic (PV) modules demand extremely high long-term performance, while manufacturers also want to reduce production costs as far as possible. The PV industry is therefore looking for optimum production and reliability rates in module production. The pursuit of maximum throughput is likely to make manual inspection almost obsolete: the human eye simply cannot cope with current production speeds. Automated quality inspection for process control – covering control and detection of defective parts – is the key to process optimization and to fast and cost-efficient production.
First-rate PV module production requires the use of high-quality materials to achieve long product lifetime and high efficiency. With glass, solar cells, EVA, frames and junction boxes, the material costs account for more than 70 percent of the total. The process itself, including labor and energy consumption, makes up about only 10 percent of overall production costs. Using automated inspection solutions optimizes costs throughout PV module production and ensures a high-quality controlling process, in which defective parts are detected early during the processing. This minimizes reworking and increases productivity, reducing the scrap rate and saving costs for processing defective products.
