I need a Laminator.

[winnkathy]

Hello.

I'm new to the site and so far I find it quite helpful.  I live in SE Florida and I'm looking to make my own solar panels.  The most expensive part of the project is the cost of the laminator.  I don't have the capital to purchase a new laminator form Spire or some other bigwigs.  I'm looking for a cheap laminator that someone wants to get rid of.  If you know of anyone that can help me, I would greatly appreciate it.   I've read some threads and see that some members have purchased laminators thru auctions however, I haven't been that lucky to even find the auctions for laminators.    I would greatly apprciate any info.

Thanks

Kathy Winn

[wooferhound]

Do you think Kinko's would do that for you ?

[winnkathy]

Is this supposed to be funny or are you just stupid?

[TomW]

winnkathy;

Careful, now. Being new you may want to get the lay of the land awhile before you make an enemy of someone like woofer who is a prolific contributor and, perhaps more important, an Editor on this forum.

Just a word to the wise.

Tom

[Crusader]

People desire helpful information..not sarcasim.

[wooferhound]

While I'm not offended at his comment, I am offended that he didn't see the utility of my advice. A photocopy store will have a very nice large laminator with people that are very experienced with it's usage, not to mention a variety of films to laminate too. Just assemble your solar cells onto somekinda flexible backing that can be run through the machine. I'm sure they have laminated stranger things before, but you would want to check with the store about their capabilities before you put it all together. The result wold be very low cost compared to the purchase of a laminator.

But I wonder about how well solar cells would survive the lamination process ?

[Madscientist267]

LOL I doubt very well, indeed. Don't most lamination machines use rollers that exert pressure as well as heat during the process? My guess is one would end up with a crunchy facsimile of what used to be a solar panel.

Why laminate anyway? Potting of any sort is a double edge sword. While it seals the cells off from environmental problems, if an issue does develop, it's difficult if not impossible to replace a single cell, or repair a connection, etc. I can't speak for everyone, but PV cells are too expensive for my blood to be potting them with more than a few cells in a single assembly (yard light comes to mind)...

Double sided tape or foam works well for panels, if theyre put inside a waterproof enclosure. Then when something goes wrong, and work needs to be done on the panel, 14 hoops aren't waiting to be jumped to make the process viable.

Just a thought...

Steve

[kurt]

i think he is looking for a special machine used in solar panel manufacture called a laminator i seen one being used in a video of manufacturing of solar panels once.... it is not the same machine as a laminator used for laminating paper etc. why he could not just explain what he wanted instead of being insulting i have no idea but i hope his attitude improves in the future.

Kurt (editor)  

[richhagen]

Most of what I have seen are basically vacuum chambers that draw out the air and heat up the laminating sheets of EVA to turn them to mush and seal it all up between the glass and a Tedlar backing sheet.  I suspect that someone on here has probably built something similar with a welder, a vacuum pump, and a radiating heat source (since conduction and convection wouldn't work too well in a vacuum), but I don't recall any successes off hand and it might be tricky to get a good seal on a door large enough to fit the panel into the pressure chamber.  Probably wouldn't get the same results at Kinkos, but an interesting alternative idea none the less.  If you had flexible cells you might be able to make something cheap and flexible.  Rich  

[winnkathy]

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[TomW]

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