A critical proportion of the world’s consumers now believe in – and want - secure, low-carbon energy. Now is the time to convert that consumer belief into lasting improvements in energy supply and environmental footprint. Here at DEK, we’re partnering with pioneering energy specialists to move alternative energies into the realm of competitive high volume manufacturing.
Precision screen printing delivers clear advantages in cost-per-unit, quality, repeatability and scalability for commercial manufacture of fuel cell and solar cell components. We have perfected high-speed processes capable of depositing a wide variety of polymer materials, dielectrics and metallisation layers, with thickness accurate to within just a few micron.
DEK screen printing, competitive advantages:
- Void-free printing producing high-quality substrates for fuel cells
- Print resolution exceeds requirements for next generation solar cell manufacturing, to create finer features for improved efficiency
- Other materials including adhesives, conductive inks and non-conductive compounds deposited with high positional accuracy and repeatability
- Our background in thick film hybrid and electronic surface mount assembly is critical in minimising wastage of high-value materials in fuel cell and solar cell components
- Our experience with multinational manufacturers and comprehensive global infrastructure enables customers to scale capacity quickly to meet predicted increases in global demand
Put simply, DEK is a stable, secure and capable partner, with global credentials, to help you deliver commercial fuel cells and solar cells for world markets.
DEK is an established global supplier of state-of-the-art solutions for commercial photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacture. As a world-leading authority in the field of screen printing, we have played an active role in solar cell development since the 1970s. Today, our comprehensive, one-stop metallization solution delivers a clear cost, quality and repeatability advantage for customers around the world – both now and in the future.
Our proven high-productivity, high-quality PV solutions are delivered on a short turnaround basis thanks to the powerful combination of our pioneering expertise and global customer support infrastructure.
Rising productivity, global support, low cost-of-ownership and short delivery times? Think DEK Solar.
Visit DEK Solar at www.deksolar.com
Fuel cell technology is now well-proven, through extensive laboratory and prototype testing. However, it is imperative that the unit cost of fuel cells themselves should be reduced – ultimately to consumer commodity levels - while manufacturing capacity increases to meet anticipated worldwide demand.
DEK has developed the high-speed, accurate, repeatable, cost-effective equipment, capable of supporting high-yield processes that will deliver large numbers of high-quality fuel cells, quickly, and at low unit cost.
The resolution required for effective production of fuel cell components is much finer than that required for depositing solder paste onto pads for mounting electronic components to a PCB. The thickness of the deposits is also much thinner, and the characteristics of fuel cell materials are very different from those of solder paste, although not so different from those of polymer thick film materials.
However, screen printing equipment and processes have now reached a very high level of capability and refinement. Semiconductor manufacturers themselves are successfully using the latest generations of equipment to apply finely-metered quantities of diverse materials at silicon chip level, as well as to the interconnects and packaging surrounding the chip.
So the accuracy, resolution, repeatability and materials handling capabilities of our screen printing technologies are the ideal solution for the challenges of fuel cell component production. Our screen printers use high-speed linear motors and accurate, repeatable position encoders, to achieve high positional accuracy and repeatability, at high rates of throughput with few stoppages and very low human intervention. Our screen and stencil design and manufacture expertise, coupled with our enclosed head printing technology, delivers the repeatable accuracy necessary for managing expensive materials during fuel cell manufacture.
Screen printing has further economic advantages to fuel cell production, in addition to high throughput and automation. The equipment can easily be reconfigured to produce a variety of components, simply by changing to a different material, fitting the appropriate screen, and loading new process settings either directly or via a network. A changeover can be completed in a matter of minutes.
For more information about DEK’s complete fuel cell production solution, please visit our downloads section.