Following the widespread success of the award-winning PVP1200 platform and the recent European launch of the highly anticipated PV3000 metallization line, DEK Solar is consolidating its position as a major force on the solar stage. Talking recently about the company’s success in the sector, Alternative Energy Business Manager, Darren Brown, attributed the trend to DEK’s ability to “think beyond equipment.”

“The breakthrough accuracy, throughput and repeatability of our PV1200 and PV3000 is obviously a major part of our success – but this is only half the story,” he explains. “Thanks to our 40+ year history in the SMT and Semiconductor industries, we’re able to think beyond equipment to provide our customers with real-world solar manufacturing solutions. Having spoken to customers in the field, we know that the main challenge in this industry has not been finding the right equipment but rather, finding the right equipment backed by the right level of process support, knowledge and service. Here at DEK, we’re able to harness our strengths in engineering and production, along with our global infrastructure, to deliver what our solar customers need to get ahead – and stay there.”

With a dominant market share in the screen printer sector for electronics circuit board assembly, DEK has been delivering leading-edge print solutions for advanced technology applications for over 40 years. During this time, the company has established a comprehensive global logistics and applications support infrastructure. Influential in solar cell manufacture since the late 1970s, DEK now delivers significant advantages for commercial solar cell production. Coupled with world-class lean manufacturing expertise and Kanban/JIT methodologies, DEK’s global infrastructure has dramatically reduced industry lead-times from months to a matter of weeks. Using these foundations, a dedicated global engineering presence is also able to rapidly move end customers and line integrators from concept through to volume production.

Darren adds: “We don’t just have people in the right places; we have the right people in these places. Our technical centers worldwide are staffed by product specialists, application engineers, process experts, screen and stencil designers, and customer-focused support engineers dedicated to the success of not only equipment, but overall processes too. Our centers in China, Germany, UK and USA put hundreds of experienced people within close reach of our customers, delivering the award-winning service excellence they need to achieve more. From the PV1200 to the PV3000, we’re engineering state-of-the-art technologies capable of handling advanced processes such as print-on-print and selective emitter. So, whether it’s a small development scale customer with just one printer or a fully kitted Gigawatt scale facility, we really have got it covered!”