Extrusion/dispensing systems and methods

• US 20070108229A1
• Filed: 11/17/2005
• Published: 05/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SolarWorld Industries GmbH
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Hantschel, Thomas, Fork, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,799,371 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 222/129
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 9/06 the delivery being related to the movement of a vehicle, e.g. the pump being driven by a vehicle wheel
• CPC Class Codes: B05C 5/0254 Coating heads with slot-shaped outlet B05C5/0283 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 48/05 Filamentary, e.g. strands
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 48/08 flexible, e.g. films
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 48/12 Articles with an irregular circumference when viewed in cross-section, e.g. window profiles
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 48/19 the layers being joined at their edges
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 48/305 having a wide opening, e.g. for forming sheets

Abstract

A method for extruding composite materials on a substrate includes feeding a first material into a first channel and a second material, used to maintain a shape of the first material, into one or more second channels residing on at least one side of the first channel, merging the flows of the first and second materials into a single flow in which the second material surrounds the first material, applying the single flow to a substrate to produce at least one composite material, and post-processing the composite material to form a solid.

Claims

1. A method for extruding/dispensing composite materials, comprising:

feeding a first material into a first channel used to extrude/dispense the first material,

feeding a second material used to maintain a shape of the first material into one or more second channels residing on at least one side of the first channel;

merging the flow of the first material and the flow of the second material into a single flow in which the second material surrounds the first material;

applying the single flow to a substrate to produce at least one composite material; and

post-processing the dispensed composite material to form a solid.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the formed solid is a conductive contact.

3. The method as set forth in claim 1, further including:

feeding the first material into a first set of alternating channels;

feeding the second material into a second set of channels residing between the first set of alternating channels;

merging the flows from the first set of alternating channels and the second set of channels into a single flow in which the first and second material are interleaved; and

applying the single flow to the substrate to produce at least one composite material.

4. The method as set forth in claim 1, further including at least one of pushing and pulling the first and second materials through the channels to produce laminar flows prior to merging the materials into a single flow.

5. The method as set forth in claim 1, further including setting at least one of a flow rate, a temperature, and a duty cycle based on a viscosity of the first and second materials.

6. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the composite material is characterized through at least one of an aspect ratio of 2:

1 and a size of less than about 30 microns.

7. The method as set forth in claim 1, further including moving at least one of the channels and the substrate during extrusion to define at least one of a length, a width, a height, and a diameter of the composite material.

8. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the substrate is associated with one of a solar cell and a fuel cell.

9. A method for co-extruding composite materials on a substrate, comprising:

merging at least two different materials from at least two different channels to generate a single flow of the at least two different materials; and

applying the single flow of the at least two different materials to the substrate.

10. The method as set forth in claim 9, wherein one of the at least two different materials is a silver paste for creating electrodes on a solar cell and another of the at least two different materials is a sacrificial material used to maintain a shape of the electrodes.

11. The method as set forth in claim 9, wherein one of the at least two different materials forms a fine feature on the substrate and another of the at least two different materials maintains the shape of the fine feature, is transparent, and remains on the substrate.

12. The method as set forth in claim 9, wherein one of the at least two different materials forms porous hydrophilic lines of an electrode of a fuel cell and another of the at least two different materials forms porous hydrophobic lines of the electrode of the fuel cell.

13. The method as set forth in claim 9, wherein the single flow of the at least two different materials forms a gridline on a photovoltaic cell in which at least one end of the gridline is associated with a variable ratio of conducting to non-conducting material.

14. The method as set forth in claim 9, wherein the single flow of the at least two different materials forms a gridline, and further including varying conductor cross-section throughout the length of the gridline.

15. The method as set forth in claim 9, further including heating at least one of the two different materials to lower its viscosity.

16. The method as set forth in claim 9, further including UV curing the applied single flow of materials to define a shape of the applied materials.

17. The method as set forth in claim 9, wherein at least one of the at least two different materials is a highly thixotropic.

18. A method for co-extruding/dispensing composite materials, comprising:

merging two disparate materials to generate a single flow of different materials within an applicator; and

applying the single flow to generate one of an entity of vertically layered materials and an entity of horizontally layered materials.

19. The method as set forth in claim 18, wherein at least one of the materials has a rheology closely matched to a silver paste.

20. The method as set forth in claim 18, further including utilizing temperature to affect at least one of a flow of the materials and a shape of the resultant entity.