Long history of metallurgical and chemical knowledge in solar markets

Balver Zinn has over three generation experience in electronics industry. This metallurgical knowledge is the basis for entering the solar market. They closely working with suppliers of the PV ribbon products. Materials are supplied to tin precision copper flat wire for solar cell tabbing and string interconnect. Different hot-dip tinning alloys are available including lead-free materials. In order to clean surfaces a proper flux is needed. In that area the experiences and knowledge of the successful Cobar division benefits in finding a total solution. Their products are excellent in cleaning oxidized surfaces of different metallization. This gained knowledge is used to create fluxes that have excellent properties in cleaning more difficult surfaces like AgAl on the photovoltaic cells. Fluxes are applied in the stringing or tabbing soldering process of the PV cells. The solder coated ribbons are dipped into the flux before contacted to the collector grid. In this process the function of the flux is to clean the surface and to promote the wetting of the ribbon. For this process alcohol and VOC-free fluxes are available. Both were successful in designing a flux coated ribbon for the stringing of PV cells. These kind of ribbons eliminates the flux step in the soldering process. For those who want to hand solder their own solar panels there are offered flux pens that can be refilled to removed oxides and promote wetting in order to create strong interconnections that are resistant enough for the standard pull tests.