Researchers from DTU Energy Conversion developed a small printing press to solve the problem of making enough test material - a so-called 'mini roll coater'. The problem-solver turned out to be an export success.
DTU Energy Conversion research intensively in organic polymer solar cells and to be able to reproduce the research results and scale it up for industrial purposes, the DTU-researchers developed a small printing press to solve the problem of making enough test material - a so-called 'mini roll coater' (MRC ).
Previously, researchers could make 5-10 test solar cells over a half a day using sheet-to-sheet technology, but the MRC made it possible to mass produce 200-400 test cells on the hour and a half using roll-to-roll technology, which has turned the MRC into an export success in itself.
"We were working with sheet-to-sheet production of test cells for many years, but we are updating to roll-to-roll and the MRC has proven to be a great machine to test different inks. "
Dr. Monika Voigt, Head of Solar Fabrik der Zukunft
The export of MRC are handled by the spin-off company FOM Technologies, founded by former innovation employee at DTU Energy Conversion Torben Nielsen and his partner Martin Kiener, who has a background in the printing industry. They have license to sell MRC all over the world, and they do it quite well.
“We saw an interesting potential for MRC machines for universities and research institutions all over the world, and we are experiencing good sales," says Torben Nielsen.
MRC was first choice
Solar Fabrik der Zukunft, part of Bayerisches Zentrum für Angewandte Energieforschung eV (ZAE Bayern) at Erlangen University, is one of the customers. ZAE Bayern research in organic polymer solar cells and print with functional ink for 'printed electronics', and they chose MRC as one of the first new machines, when they decided to modernize the entire laboratory.
"We were working with sheet-to-sheet production of test cells for many years, but we are updating to roll-to-roll and the MRC has proven to be a great machine to test different inks," says Dr. Monika Voigt, Head of Solar Fabrik der Zukunft.
ZAE Bayern and DTU Energy Conversion are both within the top five in research in polymer solar cells, and although ZAE Bayern with Monika Voigt's words have a slightly different research approach to polymer solar cells than DTU, it is a mark of quality in itself that the new MRC was invented and developed at DTU.
"But most of all; the MRC is easy to handle, easy to use and quick to clean, making it a very valuable and functional machine for our test facility" says Ph.D. student Luca Lucera, daily user of MRC at ZAE Bayern.
Testing LEC in Sweden
Andreas Sandström from Umeå University in northern Sweden has the same positive experience with MRC. He is part of Lunalec AB, which manufactures light emitting electro chemical cells (LEC) at ordinary room temperature using roll to roll printing methods, and the Swedish researchers collaborated for several years with the solar researchers from DTU Energy Conversion to get a handle on roll-to- roll technology.
"The use of the mini roll coater is an integral part of the materials research in organic LEC, which Lunalec AB is based. The MRC is good to handle material screening and testing of materials film formation properties and the structure of the architecture," says Anders Sandström.