Process for producing a multilayer laminate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10688765-B2
Application number	US-201615771308-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 18, 2016
Priority date	Nov 4, 2015
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

The present invention relates to a lamination process for producing a multilayer laminate which comprises a one or more substrate element(s) and one or more polymeric layer element(s), preferably to a lamination process for producing a photovoltaic (PV) module, and to a PV module laminate.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for producing a multilayer laminate which comprises at least one substrate element and at least one polymeric layer element,
wherein the polymeric layer element comprises a polymer composition comprising:
(a) a polymer, wherein said polymer (a) optionally bears functional group(s) containing units; and
(b) silane group(s) containing units;
and wherein the process comprises the steps of:
(i) an assembling step to arrange the at least one substrate element and the at least one polymeric layer element in form of a multilayer assembly;
(ii) a heating step to heat up the multilayer assembly optionally in a chamber at evacuating conditions;
(iii) a pressing step to build and keep pressure on the multilayer assembly at the heated conditions for the lamination of the assembly to occur; and
(iv) a recovering step to cool and remove the obtained multilayer laminate for later use;
wherein the pressing step (iii) is started when the at least one polymeric layer element reaches a temperature which is 3 to 13° C. higher than the melting temperature of the polymer (a) of said polymeric layer element; and
wherein the duration of the pressing step (iii) is from 0.5 to 10 minutes;
wherein the polymer (a) has
a melting temperature, Tm, of 100° C. or less, and
a melt flow rate, MFR 2 , of less than 20 g/10 min (according to ISO 1133 at 190° C. and at a load of 2.16 kg); and
wherein no crosslinking agent selected from peroxide or silane condensation catalyst (SCC), which is selected from the SCC group of carboxylates of tin, zinc, iron, lead or cobalt or aromatic organic sulphonic acids, is introduced to the polymer (a) of the polymer composition before or during the lamination process.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the pressing step (iii) is started when the at least one polymeric layer element reaches a temperature which is 3 to 10° C. higher than the melting temperature of the polymer (a) of said polymeric layer element.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the pressing step (iii) is started when the at least one polymeric layer element reaches a temperature of at least of 85° C.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the duration of the heating step (ii) is 0.5 to 7 minutes.

5. The process according to claim 1 , wherein at the pressing step (iii) the duration of building the pressure is 0.5 to 3 minutes, the duration of holding the pressure is 0.5 to 9 minutes, and the total duration of the pressing step (iii) is 1.0 to 10 minutes.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the total duration of the (ii) heating step and pressing step (iii) is less than 20 minutes.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the pressure used in the pressing step (iii) is up to 1000 mbar.

8. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer composition of the polymeric layer element of the lamination process comprises:
a polymer (a) selected from:
(a1) a polymer of ethylene which optionally contains one or more comonomer(s) other than a polar comonomer of polymer of ethylene (a2) and which bears units containing functional groups;
(a2) a polymer of ethylene containing one or more polar comonomer(s) selected from (C1-C6)-alkyl acrylate or (C1-C6)-alkyl (C1-C6)-alkylacrylate comonomer(s), and optionally bears units containing functional group(s) other than said polar comonomer; or
(a3) a polymer of ethylene containing one or more alpha-olefin comonomer selected from (C1-C10)-alpha-olefin comonomer; and optionally bears units containing functional group(s); and

silane group(s) containing units (b).

9. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer composition comprises:
a polymer (a) which is selected from:
(a1) a polymer of ethylene which optionally contains one or more comonomer(s) other than a polar comonomer of polymer of ethylene (a2) and which bears units containing functional groups other than said optional comonomer(s); or
(a2) a polymer of ethylene containing one or more polar comonomer(s) selected from (C1-C6)-alkyl acrylate or (C1-C6)-alkyl (C1-C6)-alkylacrylate comonomer(s), and optionally bears units containing functional group(s) other than said polar comonomer; and

silane group(s) containing units (b).

10. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer composition comprises:
a polymer (a) which is a polymer of ethylene (a1) which bears the silane group(s) containing units (b) as the units containing functional groups, wherein the polymer of ethylene (a1) does not contain, a polar comonomer of polymer of ethylene (a2) or an alpha-olefin comonomer; or
a polymer (a) which is a polymer of ethylene (a2) containing one or more polar comonomer(s) selected from (C1-C6)-alkyl acrylate or (C1-C6)-alkyl (C1-C6)-alkylacrylate, and bears silane group(s) containing units (b) as the units containing functional group(s) other than said polar comonomer.

11. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the silane group(s) containing unit (b) is a hydrolysable unsaturated silane compound represented by the formula (I):
R1SiR2 q Y3- q   (I):

wherein;
R1 is an ethylenically unsaturated hydrocarbyl, hydrocarbyloxy or (meth)acryloxy hydrocarbyl group,
each R2 is independently an aliphatic saturated hydrocarbyl group,
Y which may be the same or different, is a hydrolysable organic group and,
q is 0, 1 or 2, the amount of the silane group(s) containing units (b) present in the layer in the polymer (a), is from 0.01 to 1.00 mol %.

12. The process according to claim 1 , wherein polymer (a) is a copolymer of ethylene (a1) with vinyl trimethoxysilane comonomer or a copolymer of ethylene (a2) with methylacrylate comonomer and with vinyl trimethoxysilane comonomer.

13. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer (a) has at least one of the following properties:
melt flow rate, MFR 2 , of less than 15, g/10 min (according to ISO 1133 at 190° C. and at a load of 2.16 kg),
Melting temperature, Tm, of 70° C. or more, when measured according to ISO 3146 or
Shear thinning index, SHI 0.05/300 , of 30.0 to 100.0.

14. The process according to claim 1 , for producing a multilayer laminate which is a photovoltaic module comprising, in the given order, a protective front layer element, a front encapsulation layer element, a photovoltaic element, a rear encapsulation layer element and a protective back layer element;
wherein,
any one or more of the front encapsulation layer element, rear encapsulation layer element or protective back layer element is/are said polymeric layer element(s);
and any one or more of protective front layer element, the photovoltaic element or protective back layer element, is/are said substrate layer element(s).

15. The process according to claim 1 , for producing multilayer laminate which is a photovoltaic module, wherein the photovoltaic module comprises, in the given order, a protective front layer element, a front encapsulation layer element, a photovoltaic element, a rear encapsulation layer element and a protective back layer element,
wherein one or both of the front encapsulation layer element or the rear encapsulation layer element, is/are said polymeric layer element(s);
and wherein the pressing step (iii) is started when at least one of said front and/or rear encapsulation layer element(s) reach(es) a temperature which is 3 to 13° C. higher than the melting temperature of the polymer (a) present in said front and/or encapsulation layer element.

16. The process according to claim 1 , for producing a multilayer laminate which is a photovoltaic module laminate co

Assignees

• Borealis Ag

Inventors

• Oderkerk Jeroen
• Costa Francis
• Galgali Girish Suresh
• Broeders Bert
• Bergqvist Mattias

Classifications

• H10F19/804

  Materials of encapsulations · CPC title

• H10F19/85

  Protective back sheets · CPC title

• B32B17/10018 Primary

  comprising only one glass sheet · CPC title

• Y02E10/50

  Photovoltaic [PV] energy · CPC title

• B32B37/18

  involving the assembly of discrete sheets or panels only · CPC title