DuPont? Tedlar~? polyvinyl fluoride film has been used in the packaging of photovoltaic modules sinceflat-plate crystalline silicon modules were first designed in the 1970’s. During those early years Tedlar~? film was testedboth as a front sheet and in backsheets. It was in backsheets that Tedlar~? film found wide acceptance as the preferredouter surface of these multilayer structures. Polyvinyl fluoride is a fluoropolymer and shares some of the uniqueproperties of this special class of polymer. Today Tedlar~? PVF film is available in different types and each of these typesbrings the high performance that the PV industry has relied on for decades. Most multilayer backsheets are constructedfrom laminated layers adhered together with distinct adhesive layers. An alternative to laminating different layers withadhesive is coating. Coating one or more layers is a well known way to produce highly functional multilayer structures.This paper will discuss the evolution of Tedlar~? PVF products in backsheets and in particular the development of the newcoated backsheet known as Gen 3 or PV2400. Gen 3 coated backsheets combine the power of formulation and process toprovide multilayered backsheets. This paper will also show data comparing different Tedlar~? backsheets as well as datacomparing Tedlar~? backsheets to other commercially available backsheets.
展开▼
