Solar Panel Testing Solutions

Project Introduction:

With the increasing global demand for environmental protection and energy saving, including household electricity, traffic lights and light sources for public transportation, LCD TVs and personal computers, the manufacturing of electronic production equipment is even more intense. In the production process of solar panels, the most indispensable steps include motion control mechanisms such as pick-and-place, high-speed movement, accurate positioning, and plug-in fixation. However, customers often encounter great obstacles in detecting the misalignment and cold solder joints of high-precision components, because in this process, multi-axis high-speed motion control combined with a mechanical vision system must be used for detection to improve production efficiency.

System Requirements:

The system uses pick-and-place technology to place the solar panel (Cell) on the conveyor and move it through the conveyor belt; when the sensor detects the solar panel, it is placed on the set equipment or in another storage box. The traditional composition of this structure is to use a closed control structure and a closed and complicated programming tool for programming. This will cost a lot of time and money when changing the process and expanding the interface. The maintenance cost is much higher than that of a PC-based control system, resulting in low production efficiency and expensive production costs. As process requirements increase, building a flexible and elastic PC-based motion control system has become an important consideration for manufacturers:
• High-speed motion control modules can be used to accurately control the grabbing and placing actions, and place the tested solar panels in the storage box
• Digital output/input modules are used to collect information and real-time actions from all online sensors on the conveyor belt, and collect and detect the position and surrounding status of the solar panels on the conveyor belt in real time


System Overview:
UNO-3084 dual-core embedded controller is integrated with AMONet communication control card PCI-1202U to provide a 20MHZ data transmission rate (1024 digital I/O channels can be updated in 1.04ms or up to 256 control motors can be managed) to control the grabbing and placing mechanism in real time. Through AMONet communication, Advantech AMAX-2752SY/ 2754SY/ 2756SY digital control modules are used to transmit the I/O control signals on the equipment back to the host for analysis and control. Each AMAX series product acts as a control medium between the equipment and the main controller, which will transmit all production status in real time and simultaneously accept accurate control requirements from the operation control center to adjust the status of the entire line to meet customer expectations.


Project introduction:

UNO-3084 Intel Core™ 2 Duo embedded automation controller, can be equipped with up to one PCI Express and three PCI support expansion slots
PCI-1202U 2-port AMONet RS-485 communication control PCI card
AMAX-2241/PMA 4-axis AMONet servo motion control module, can support Panasonic Minas A3/A4
AMAX-2752SY 32-channel AMONet digital input module
AMAX-2754SY 32-channel AMONet digital output module
AMAX-2756SY 16-channel AMONet isolated digital output/input module


Conclusion:

By adopting the PC-based AMONet solution, UNO-3084 integrates PCI-1202U AMONet, AMAX data acquisition and motion control module series, and the processing process can be divided into multiple effective areas. The entire system can reduce the wiring installation time of the electromechanical system, improve performance and reduce error rates, effectively reduce costs, and operators can more easily perform production conversion and updates. Advantech's AMONet solution also brings the following advantages:
• Suitable for large-scale equipment such as solar energy, LCD and other automatic production systems, which can significantly save the overall wiring cost by 20%
• Can be integrated with MES or CIM system
• Reduce the signal attenuation problem caused by long configuration lines
• Reduce the assembly and line query time of mechanical and electrical personnel to improve the equipment assembly time efficiency