engineering the solar age - Suppliers for Photovoltaics

Experience and leading technology in cell interconnectors

For more than 130 years Schlenk Group has been a supplier to the processing industry. Aluminum and gold bronze powders, pastes, pellets and suspensions as well as non-ferrous metal foils and strips are the main products manufactured within the group.

With more than 20 years of production and market experience in the photovoltaic industry, Schlenk Metallfolien is a worldwide leading manufacturer of precise roll-clad tinned strips for photovoltaic applications. Roll-cladding allows us to keep very tight tolerances in tin thickness and provides excellent distribution of tin across the width over the length of our strips. Our specialties are bus-bars and interconnecting ribbons. Due to our long experience in roll-cladding we are able to manufacture almost all dimensions required by the PV industry.

Schlenk Metallfolien has succeeded in bringing a new interconnecting ribbon named Light Harvesting String (LHS) from a laboratory scale to an industrial scale production. The precisely structured surface of LHS forces sunlight to be reflected at a defined angle, leading to total reflection on the glass-air interface of a solar module. The light is reflected back onto the surface of the PV-cell and increases the output of the cell. Independent testing on modules has shown efficiency gains of up to 3% depending on module/cell configuration. Our latest member of the LHS family, LHS SELECT, can be used without any significant change to existing production equipment. LHS SELECT, was developed to make LHS technology adaptable to any equipment platform used in module manufacturing. LHS SELECT, is available in different layouts and can be adjusted to individual customer requirements. LHS is also available for new connecting processes using adhesives. Close cooperation with cell, module and equipment manufacturers around the world has allowed us to identify and address key points concerning cell interconnection.

Our customer-oriented activities are based on the know-how of our qualified and experienced sales and service team. Schlenk Metallfolien is your competent partner in the PV supply industry worldwide.