High-speed H-gantry wins over the experts

On 9 June 2010, Festo won the Intersolar Award in the category “PV Production Technology” at Intersolar Europe in Munich, the world’s largest exhibition of photovoltaic and solar thermal products. Festo, as a manufacturer in the field of automation technology, won this award with its high-speed H-gantry for the rapid transfer of solar modules.

The high-speed H-gantry is breaking all speed records. With its maximum speed of 5 m/s, it is 30% faster than any conventional Cartesian handling unit – with comparable procurement costs. Festo has developed this high-speed handling unit with acceleration of up to 50 m/s² for dynamic assembly operations in the fields of photovoltaics, electronics and small parts handling, and wherever small, lightweight mass-produced items need to be positioned quickly and flexibly.

Cartesian system solution superior
This new type of 3D/planar surface gantry covers a square-shaped working area that is significantly larger than that of robot systems with delta kinematics, which can only work in round or kidney-shaped areas. Other disadvantages of delta robots are the high costs, the installation weight of around 150 kg and the space needed.

The linear-rotary module of the high-speed H-gantry is ingenious too. It accelerates to a speed of 1.5 metres per second at a rate of 20 m/s². The Bernoulli suction gripper at the front-end of the linear-rotary module is the ideal solution for handling solar modules and other fragile workpieces.

Contactless gripping with the Bernoulli principle
When overpressure is applied to a Bernoulli gripper, it is able to pick up workpieces such as silicon wafers in a contactless manner. Underpressure is simultaneously generated at the surface to be gripped in order to pick up the wafer. The workpiece is thus drawn towards the gripper until the applied load, back pressure force from the nozzle and the force of attraction resulting from the fluid’s force of acceleration are at equilibrium. This occurs at a certain distance (approx. 0.5 to 3 mm) between the gripper and the surface to be gripped, so that the object is held in place in a contactless fashion.

Economic progress
The 2300 exhibitors at Intersolar were invited to submit their most innovative solutions to the Intersolar Awards competition in the categories photovoltaics, solar thermal products and PV production technology. The speaker at the prize-giving ceremony and jury member Dr. Ingo Schwirtlich, Vice President Technology at Schott Solar AG, praised the high-speed H-gantry as “a solution which represents progress in photovoltaics production technology in ecological, technological and economic terms.”