Bonding machine for forming a solar array strip

US4149665A · kind A · utility

Inventors

• Robert A. Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Frosch · La Cañada Flintridge, US
• Ernest N. Costogue · Burbank, US
• Roy G. Downing · Torrance, US
• Orwin Middleton · Calabasas, US
• Robert Lee Mueller · Windsor, US
• Robert K. Yasui · Los Angeles, US
• Fred J. Cairo · Los Angeles, US
• Jerry K. Person · Los Angeles, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 4, 1977
• Grant date: Apr 17, 1979
• Expiry date: Nov 4, 1997

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10T29/53478
• WIPO field: Audio-visual technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A machine for attaching solar cells to a flexible substrate having printed circuitry deposited thereon. The strip is fed through a first station in which solar cells are elevated into engagement with solder pads for the printed circuitry and thereafter heated by an infrared lamp, a second station at which flux and solder residue is removed, a third station at which electrical performance of the soldered cells is determined, a fourth station at which an encapsulating resin is deposited on the cells, a fifth station at which the encapsulated solar cells are examined for electrical performance and a final station at which the resulting array is wound on a take-up drum.