Charles W. Thurston, Contributing Writer
The 2014 Intersolar North American trade show held in July in San Francisco included coatings from a number of companies targeting glass, plastic and metal performance. Most of these products are being used to extend the
lifetime and reduce operations and maintenance costs of solar
panels, metal foundations and other elements of solar arrays.
One coating that was new to the show this year is the
Magnelis steel coating from ArcelorMittal, based in Chicago,
which provides a self-healing corrosion-resistant surface that
is superior to heavy grades of galvanization. Magnelis slows
zinc runoff in comparable weathering of galvanized steel by
a factor of four, thanks to a three percent magnesium addition. The Magnelis ZM310 coating is 25 micrometers thick,
between two and four times thinner than a conventional galvanized steel coating.
A leading solar racking company utilizing Magnelis for the
first time is Mounting Systems, of West Sacramento, which is
roll forming steel instead of using aluminum, according to Don
Massa, the product manager for the company’s Sigma Steel line.
“Because the coating is self-healing, we can apply it before the
roll forming,” he says. The forming of the struts permits the
company to include a bolt-head slot that reduces parts. And the
strength of the engineered strut enabled them to substitute a
four inch steel strut for a six or eight inch aluminum purlin used
in older designs.
Later this year, a waterborne polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)
coating for solar panel back sheets will be developed by Solvay,
complementing the company’s roll sheets, noted Philippe-Jacques Leng, the company’s global marketing manager for specialty polymers. Solvay, based in Brussels, produces a wide line
of fluorinated polymers used in panel manufacturing, coatings
for other balance-of-system components and for maintenance
of solar arrays.
Among related solar products, Solvay also demonstrated its
new Halar 500 ethylene chlorotrifluoroethylene (ECTFE) resin,
which is being utilized to produce a plastic front sheet that replaces the traditional glass sheet of a solar panel. Melbourne-based Amcor has used the resin to develop flexible front sheets
that will facilitate the integration of PV modules into more complex shapes, the company notes.
Arkema is also considering a waterborne version of its Kynar
PVDF back sheet product for use in final coating solar panels,
according to Bernard Schlinquer, the global business manag-
er for photovoltaics at the company, based in Cedex, France.
Arkema holds a patent for UV curable PVDF, which would
typically be the outer layer of a solar panel back sheet, bonded
by a curable adhesive to an inner polyester terephthalate (PET)
layer on the solar cells. Arkema currently offers its resin-based
Kynar500 for aluminum, galvanized steel, and aluminized steel
surfaces in buildings.
Cybrid Technologies also displayed its spray-on self-healing
solution for scratch-damaged solar panels at the show. The
Wujiang-based company also offers adhesive tapes for sealing
solar panels in various stages of production, notes Eric Yang, a
company representative.
Other PVDF suppliers include: 3M; Shanghai 3F New
Materials; Zhejiang Juhua; Shandong Dongyue Chemical;
Jiangsu Meilan Chemical; Daikin and Kureha. CW
Solar Coatings Highlighted
At Intersolar North America
