Penta Patterns - We are shaping innovation

Overview :

Having over 45 years of production in presswork and assemblies and with countless awards and recognitions for excellence in quality, performance and innovation the Sertec group of companies business development plan turned to the future and renewable energies.

A new type of solar collector was the way forward, utilising their expertise and innovation in metal processing a collector was developed which would exhibit the same characteristics of a flat plate collector but would deliver the performance of a glass tube system without the fragility. Thinner and lighter than the competition the resulting panels would be easier to handle and install.

Brief :

In close liason with customer, on going development and production of all prototype and production tooling, fixturing and marketing models.

Concerns and Considerations :

Scalable solutions for production, customer envisages production rising from 10,000 square metres of panel to 40,000 and ultimately 250,000 square metres at purpose built site.

Our process :

Prototype tooling and fixturing supplied to enable customer to trial production processes
Materials sourced for production tools from our extensive supplier base
Highly specialised hydroform tooling produced and mounted in die sets
Large cast iron draw tools cut on our high speed machines, hand finished and inspected
Assembly, welding and checking fixtures produced
Marketing models produced for sales and technical teams
Complex hydroform diaphram moulds developed and produced

The result :

Successful production of solar panels with scalable economical solutions for future expansion of business.

Additional advantages :

On such a large project with so many diverse requirements and design changes valuable time and money was saved by consolidating all of the activities and designs under one roof, all design changes could be captured and incorporated into all layers of the project simultaneously, thus removing the need for costly and time consuming rework.

Project :

Penta have succesfully completed a large number of projects for european based solar and wind power energy product manufacturers including large scale aluminium moulds for composite parts.

Recent projects include development of prototype and production press tooling, welding, assembly fixturing and presentation models for a ground breaking solar panel designed and developed here in the midlands.

Having worked on previous unrelated projects for our client we were extremely pleased to be selected to supply engineering products and solutions for a unique new deign of solar panel which remarkably has the same characteristics of a flat plate design yet delivers the performance of a glass tube system without the inherent fragility.

This radical design presented our client with a number of dilemas not only relating to the manufacture of the product itself but also the plant and equiment to support its production which would push the boundaries of current manufacturing processed to the limit.

Manufactured from two sheets of thin gauge stainless steel which are rapidly laser welded to an extremely tight tolerance and then hydroformed to form multiple heat pipes within this section, the manufacturing process required extremely accurate laser weld fixturing to hold the two panels in allignment using vacuum pressure and production hydrofroming tooling to form the required sections.

Confirming the panels integrity was also key to the project, and to this end Penta produced helium leak test fixturing to enable parts to be tested under pressure.

Once the panels had been produced conventional press tools were produced and refined to enable pressed trays to be manufactured which not only provided protection for the stainless steel panel but also voids for thermal insulation and fixing surfaces for a sealed double glazed unit which completed the solar panel assembly.

Finally sectioned marketing models were required, these showed the internal construction of the panel and enabled the companies sales team to demonstrate and showcase the unique design features and inherent strength and lightness of the product.

Manufactured from two sheets of thin gauge stainless steel which are rapidly laser welded to an extremely tight tolerance and then hydroformed to form multiple heat pipes within this section, the processes to produce the panels would push the boundaries of current manufacturing processes to the limit.