Fives commissions extra-large PV glass lehrs to China’s leading glassmaker

Driven to achieve carbon neutrality, China became the world’s biggest manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) products aiming to reduce coal usage and increase renewable energy sources. PV glass is a technology that enables the conversion of light into electricity by the means of transparent semiconductor-based photovoltaic cells.

Fives has successfully put forward more than 16 annealing lehrs into operation for a leading photovoltaic glass manufacturer in China over the last few months.

The annealing lehr for extra-large glass ribbons, featuring Fives' advanced technology and engineering efforts of the local team in China, has an outstanding production capacity above 300 metric tonnes per day. Lehrs have been designed, supplied and commissioned by Fives Stein Metallurgical Technology, Shanghai, a Fives’ subsidiary in China.

Continuous annealing

The annealing lehr is not sophisticated equipment, but it’s the key to slowly cooling glass to relieve internal stresses after it was formed. Fives has proprietary expertise for the hot air continuous annealing process to accurately control the cooling curve at every point of the glass ribbon – longitudinally and transversally.

Annealing lehr key features include:

Optimized heating to thickness and width requirements
Up to seven transversal cooling zones for smoother control
Specific solution for high-capacity production of ultra-thin glass
Accurate thermal balance calculation and proportional control system

Fives has been partnering with PV glass producers in China over 20 years, by having supplied more than 100 annealing lehrs.

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