Fine Tungsten Wire May Replace Diamond Wire in the Photovoltaic Industry

Tungsten wire, made of refractory metal tungsten (W), has high melting point, high resistivity, good strength and low vapor pressure, which is widely used in the field of lighting. However, with the continuous reduction of the traditional lighting application market in recent years, head tungsten enterprises in China are more actively exploring other application fields, such as photovoltaics.

Diamond wire is one of the important tools for cutting silicon wafers that are one of the core components of photovoltaic equipment. The bus bar in the wire is mostly made of carbon steel wire, but studies have shown that fine tungsten wire can replace carbon steel wire thanks to its good characteristics of high tensile strength, high rigidity, good toughness, low torsional stress, fatigue resistance and corrosion resistance.

The purpose of replacing with this metal wire is to deal with the problem of thin wire. At the same time, this wire’s fracture force is proportional to the wire diameter and tensile strength. At present, the wire diameter of high carbon steel wire (busbar) is close to the limit. Fine tungsten wire has stronger tensile strength and can make the wire diameter thinner under the same breaking force.

Under the current background of wafer thinning and high price of silicon material, the thinning of diamond wire has become an inevitable trend. Generally speaking, with thinner wire, the loss rate of silicon wafer is smaller and the cutting effect will be better. Or, more generally, the finer the wire, the lower the production cost of related manufacturers and the higher the conversion efficiency of silicon cells.

Compared with made of high carbon steel wire, the wire with tungsten wire as the busbar has a smaller diameter, higher breaking force and better durability, so it is more suitable for application in the future photovoltaic Industry. 

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