TMCnet News
Spire Solar Announces New Solar Module Manufacturing Machine; Automated Cell String Inspection Station Compatible with Spire Assemblers BEDFORD, Mass. --(Business Wire)-- May 3, 2004 -- Spire Corporation (Nasdaq: SPIR) today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Spire Solar has introduced an automated solar cell string inspection system for module manufacturers.This automated inspection system tests each string for cell orientation, alignment, ribbon placement, chips, micro-cracks and solder joint quality. The entire test station can be added to Spire's Assembler, which connects solar cells into strings that are then assembled into modules, or it can be used as a stand-alone machine. It was developed under Spire's Photovoltaic Manufacturing Research and Development program supported by the Department of Energy through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Steve Hogan, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Spire Solar, commented, "The $400 million solar electric industry is expected to expand from 700 megawatts of production capacity to over one gigawatt over the next two years. Spire Solar is committed to support this growth by offering reliable, high throughput, high yield module manufacturing equipment to its customers. Spire, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year and has over 25 years of experience in providing PV module manufacturing equipment, supports manufacturers around the world in all aspects of photovoltaic module production." Spire Corporation provides products and services based upon a common technology platform to the solar, biomedical and optoelectronics industries worldwide. Certain matters described in this news release may be forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risk of dependence on market growth, competition and dependence on government agencies and other third parties for funding contract research and services, as well as other factors described in the Company's Form 10-KSB filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. |
