Mondragon Assembly is a subsidiary of Mondragon Corporation, which is a federation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque region of Spain. Founded in the town of Mondragón in 1956, its origin is linked to the activity of a modest technical college and a small workshop producing paraffin heaters. Today it is the seventh largest Spanish company in terms of turnover (~ 16 billion Euros) and the leading business group in the Basque Country. The group employs currently around 95,000 people working in 256 companies in four areas of activity: Finance, Industry, Retail and Knowledge. The MONDRAGON cooperatives operate in accordance with a business model based on people and the sovereignty of labor, which has made it possible to develop highly participative companies rooted in solidarity, with a strong social dimension but without neglecting business excellence. The cooperatives are owned by their worker-members and power is based on the principle of one person one vote.
The cooperative Mondragon Assembly was started 30 years ago and became an expert supplier of automated fabrication lines. In 2001 the company entered the PV industry and is offering their products in two basic categories: (i) standard production equipment, and (ii) custom solutions, which include custom equipment and turnkey fabrication lines.
Cell Production Equipment
- Edge isolation
- Wafer/cell handling equipment
- Inspection tools
Module Production Equipment
- Cell tester (Throughput: 2,400 cells/hour)
- Tabber/stringer (Throughput: 600 and 1,200 cells/hour, 2 or 3 busbars)
- Layup station (with or without string inspection)
- Bussing station (different degrees of automation)
- Trimming station (manual worktables, automated)
- Gluing station (Glue suspension for junction box)
- Framing station (different degrees of automation, all types of frames)
- Module tester (with intetraged third party flashers)
- Module sorting station
- IR imaging
- Dark IV testing
Custom Solutions
- Custom design of all of the above
- Tabber/stringer for glued connections (instead of soldered)
- Turnkey module fabrication lines with a capacity of 12 to over 100 MW/year
Literature for Download
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| Cell Tester | Tabber/stringer with automated layup station | Automated bussing station | Mondragon Assembly company and product overview |
Turnkey Module Fabrication Lines
Turnkey module fabrication lines can be built in any size in terms of output capacity (MW/year) with little, moderate, or full automation. The decision what line to select depends mostly on budgetary constraints, a company's envisioned growth strategy and the type of modules it is planning to make.
A 25 MW/year line for instance is only around 30% more expensive than one 12.5 MW/year line. While the 12.5 MW/year line is equipped with a laminator perfect for laminating a 60-cell 220W module, the output of the line would drop to about 8 MW/year for a 72-cell 270W module because the laminator is not large enough to process two large modules at a time. This problem could be solved by integrating a larger laminator but then the price would get closer to that of a 25 MW line.
The 25 MW/year line on the other hand is equipped with a laminator, which can process both sizes of modules without throughput restrictions. If it is a company's desire to manufacture those two types of modules, the 25 MW/year line would be the right one to start with. But wait ... does it make sense to manufacture two different types of modules on one line? Wouldn't it be better to build two dedicated lines for different module sizes?
It is our goal to guide our customers through the various options and help make a decision. Please watch the video of a moderately automated 25 MW/year line to get an idea how your line could look like.
Where is Mondragon Located?
Mondragon Assembly is located about 55 minutes by car southeast from Bilbao in the town of Aretxabaleta. Bilbao is the nearest international airport.
Please also visit Mondragon at http://www.mondragon-assembly.com/solar/index.php .