Epoxy for encapsulating cells (great DIY thread with photos!)

[electricsuperduty]

DFox- what is the size of your panels and how much sylgard did you apply?
How do you keep the cells flat to the glass, my experience was cells not flat and alot of sealant needed.

[DeltaFox 25]

I have just used one slgard per panel . My panels are 36 cells each but I have 5x5's 6x6's and even a 4x4 cell panel . I had no trouble in having my cells lay flat on the glass . I'm doing it different now. Glass ,slygard , cells, slygard . in that order,

[electricsuperduty]

I've heard of this method, cant see how to get the cells down on the sealant. Do you put much sealant down first, then cells and then the rest of what's left of the sylgard.
How do you do your buss strips?

[DeltaFox 25]

It depens upon how big the cells are. I have in one case put twn slygard down .one on the bottom and one on top. It's allways nice to have someone help you. Lay your cells out on a different board just like you want them to be on the glass. Make sure there all done . slide them off very slowly to make sure everthing lines up.

[electricsuperduty]

Ok, so as you slide them into the sealant do you just finger press them down into the gard, trying to remove the air bubbles. I'm guessing the cells want to float on top with air trapped under them.

[DeltaFox 25]

I had not seen any air bubbles on mine,but I'm sure there must be some but it's alot less then the other way. I had taken them down for awhile so I'll have to go out and really look at them.

[Stingervf]

deltafox

I know the reason for encapsulating the cells but has anyone tried pressurizing the cell with nitrogen say 5lbs ,By flowing nitrogen through the cell it would remove all the air along with any water vapor also the nitrogen doesn't expand with heat like air does and it's inert it won't burn

just a thought
chris

[russ]

Nitrogen will expand similar to air.

You would have to maintain a 24/7 purge on for the life of the panel - lots of N2

[Sunking]

Just not feasible. Wireless broadcast operators use nitrogen for their hardlines and waveguides, but that is different.

[ASDCO]

actually it WOULD work if you ran a small expansion tube from each cell to a remote bladder.

[conntaxman]

encapsulating

For encapsulating the cells why couldn't you just brush or roll on the sky gurd.You only have to coat the Blue side of the cell, the back/gray dosent have to be coated.So you could put down what ever you were going to use for the backing, will say a piece of glass then lay the cells down,blue facing up, then brush on the encapsulating let dry then put a bead of calk on all four sides then cover with another piece of glass.Clamp together till calk dries.To make it even better take a paper towel cut it in half put that on the first piece of glass before the cells, sprinkel about 4 tea spoons of Silica on it then place the other half of paper towel on the top.Tape all 4 sides so the Silica cant come out. That would remove any moisture the could be inside.NO moisture.
Where dose everyone buy the tempered glass at? I found a place but its only 14x56" good for 36 cells.and pretty cheap.$10.00 bucks a side.

http://wholesale-store-fixtures.com/Glass/tempered_glass_shelving.htm

John