Sono-Tek Corporation, a US-based company specializing in ultrasonic equipment used for alternative energy product manufacturing, will highlight its ultrasonic coating equipment, including a high-speed ultrasonic reciprocating coating system, HyperSonic, in Hall 4/Level 2/A45 at the 25th EU PVSEC in Valencia, Spain from 6-9 September 2010.
The HyperSonic system is designed to coat large area solar glass (up to 122 cm) with uniform, thin film anti-reflective coatings. Sono-Tek’s ultrasonic coating technology applies an optimum anti-reflective layer, maximizing light available for conversion and increasing transmission over the sun’s incident angles.
Traditional CVD and PVD for solar glass coatings are expensive, slow batch manufacturing processes. Pressure nozzles are capable of spraying anti-reflective suspensions; however, they have critical process limitations. Significant overspray and clogging, along with poor deposition control and inconsistent uniformity are major drawbacks to pressure nozzle technology. Sono-Tek’s ultrasonic nozzles are able to overcome these limitations with minimal bounce back and overspray, non-clogging performance, and uniform thin-film coatings. The benefits of ultrasonic coating include the ability to control thickness of deposition, drop size control (by varying nozzle frequency), and tight drop distribution, resulting in precise, uniform deposition. Ultrasonic nozzles are ideal for spraying nano-suspensions commonly used in anti-reflection coatings, as the continuous ultrasonic vibration of the nozzle deagglomerates particles and keeps them evenly suspended in the solution.
The HyperSonic system incorporates Sono-Tek’s precision ultrasonic atomizing nozzles with a robust, high-speed reciprocator (up to 2 meters/second) designed for industrial volume manufacturing. Featuring user-friendly control of system functions using Windows-based software, including programming and recipe storage, HyperSonic easily retrofits over existing conveyorized systems.
