Que: Energetica India: Where does teamtechnik stand in global stringer market?

Ans: S.Kramer: teamtechnik is world market leader for Stringer Systems. Since 2004 teamtechnik has been active in the Solar Industry. Due it its high level of innovation and high level of engineering and development, the throughput of our Stringer Systems have been increased over the years more and more. Today our Stringer Systems TT2100 and TT4200 GIGA are the benchmark worldwide.

Besides conventional soldering technology, teamtechnik has also developed a technology for the connection of solar cells using electrically conductive adhesive. This technology is used for the interconnection of high performance HJT solar cells. These cells cannot be soldered anymore due to its temperature sensitivity. Our Stringer TT1600ECA is the ideal solution for this new high performance solar cell technology.

As a technology leader, teamtechnik focuses on new trends and provides high throughput production systems for customers worldwide. Our worldwide service network enables us to serve our customers together with our partner companies on a truly global level. Besides these technologies, teamtechnik does also provide customized solutions to worldwide leading solar module manufacturers ensuring the technology advantage for our customers.

Que: Energetica India: How does teamtechnik assist its clients in technology upgrade?

Ans: S. Kramer:Our Stringer Systems can be upgraded for the different number of busbars. Initially our Stringer Systems have been developed for the processing of 3 busbars. Over the years the number of busbars increased and therefore we found ways to increase also the number of ribbons with our previous machine platforms.
Our current Stringer Systems TT2100 and TT4200 can process solar cells with up to 6 busbars. An upgrade can be performed at a later time, even after the machines have been supplied to our customers.

Together with our trained service technicians and our trained partners we ensure a short downtime of the equipment while the machines are upgraded to the latest technology.

Que: Energetica India: Tell us the USPs of stringer TT4200 GIGA. Why is it called the world’s fastest stringer?

Ans: S. Kramer:Our TT4200 GIGA is the worldwide fastest Stringer Systems. This is the high performance “race horse” of the Stringer Systems. It is a dual lane Stringer. We combined the proven technology of our Stringer TT2100 on two tracks and created with a centralized cell feeding this very compact Stringer System. On an area of only 15 m² we can produce solar cell strings of 150 MW per year! Every 0.85 seconds one solar cell is fed into the machine. Our spray fluxing technology ensures that only the areas of the cells are fluxed which are required. We can program the flux nozzles in a way so that only e.g. the pads of the solar cell are fluxed and not the entire lane. This reduces the overall flux consumption and ensures a reliable soldering result. But the most important items are our patented hold-down devices. The ribbons are getting smaller and smaller. With each increase of the number of busbars, the ribbon width is reduced. Our Stringer Systems can process ribbons with a width of only 0.6 mm and a very accurate and high precision is achieved in the ribbon placement at high throughput and high speed.

Our hold-down devices ensure that the ribbons are held in position on the cell prior, during and after soldering. For bi-facials cells it is also very important that the ribbon on the backside of the cell is placed accurately. Since we are using vacuum belts for the transport system and for holding the ribbons in place, also the positioning accuracy on the backside of the cell is superior to any other Stringer System in the world.

Our IR light soldering modules are using a closed loop controlled system. We are measuring the temperature of every solar cell while soldering and thereby adjusting the power output of our IR light modules. This ensures a uniform temperature distribution and we can compensate for any thickness variations of the solar cells. Also very important criteria are the very low cell breakage rate, the high machine availability and the high uptime as well as the high yield. These factors are the reason why solar module manufacturers worldwide are using teamtechnik Stringer Systems.

Que: Energetica India: How does teamtechnik ensure quality of its stringer? What kind of certifications should a stringer buyer look at?

Ans: S. Kramer:teamtechnik is certified according to ISO 9001:2008. We use standardized protocols for the testing of our sub components and of our Stringer Systems. Each employee is responsible for the high quality of our products and therefore our employees will sign a test protocol for each test they have performed. Another important item is that teamtechnik manufactures each Stringer according to the CE machine directives. This ensures that the safety and the electrical standards of many countries worldwide are met. For a customer the performance of a Stringer is very important. Therefore we are testing each Stringer prior shipment ex works with exact the same material which will be used in the manufacturing later on at our site. Our customers will come to our facility in Germany and will see the superior quality of our equipment. Each string will be inspected, tested and approved by the customer. We ensure that only 100% tested machines will be shipped to the customer site. This also reduces the time required for the installation of our Stringer Systems. Within only 4-5 days we will be able to install the equipment and train the operators and maintenance people of our customers.

Que: Energetica India: How well has the Indian solar manufacturing industry accepted teamtechnik? What are your major installations in India?

Ans: S. Kramer:All major solar module manufacturers in India are using our Stringer Systems. Together with our partner company NMTronics we are servicing the solar market in India since 2010.Today we have installed in India more than 30 Stringer Systems with an annual production capacity of more than 2 GWp.

Que: Energetica India: What kind of service team do you have in India?

Ans: S. Kramer:Our local representative NMTronics has 10 skilled and trained service technicians for solar in India. All technicians accomplished a two weeks intensive training at our headquarters in Germany. Afterwards we had training session in India as well as joint installation where our German technicians could pass on their experience to our Indian colleagues. Today NMTronics can install, service and maintain our Stringer Systems at our customers in India on their own. We can log onto our Stringer Systems via remote support connection and help our customers, if required, from Germany or any other worldwide teamtechnik service location.