Almatec® constructed its E Series air-operated diaphragm pumps with polyethylene to provide reliability during the wafer-creation phase of solar cell manufacturing — a process that involves slurry. Slurry, which consists of silicon and polyethylene glycol, is an abrasive liquid that wears away the surface of a solar-cell wafer until the correct precision is reached. Since slurry is expensive, many solar-cell manufacturers recover, recondition and reuse it to help reduce overall production costs. Heavy-duty industrial pumps play a critical role in all stages of slurry production, use and reconditioning, which makes Almatec’s E-Series pumps ideal for these applications due, in part, to:
- A solid-block construction that can handle the abrasiveness of slurry, as well as hard, sharp waste pieces of silicon, while lengthening the pump’s life cycle and eliminating many maintenance concerns.
- High abrasion resistance — as much as 7 times higher than polypropylene and 1.6 times higher than steel.
- The patented PERSWING P® maintenance-free air control system, which allows for greater flexibility in solar-cell applications.