Solar Panel Automation HardwareNext >
The design we proposed was easily going to meet the cost goals we had been given, but the absence of physical production hardware was going to make reliability demonstration testing difficult.
We decided to build an endless loop and send the panels around and around. Using this method and running it four times faster than the production line speed we were able to do one million panel transfers in a timely manner. It also allowed us to run “What if tests” to mimic errors we expected would occur in volume production and see how our hardware dealt with these corner cases.
We ran the loop 24 x 7 and collected a daily pareto using our tracking software system to look for hardware and software timing issues. We were amazed that the highest failure modes were in bought in components from well-known brands. We worked with each vendor to get detailed FA reports. Where necessary we selected new vendors when it was clear the parts initially selected were below the standard we required.
