There are provided a method for producing a photovoltaic element with stabilised efficiency, and a device which may be used to carry out the method, for example in the form of a specially adapted continuous furnace. A silicon substrate to be provided with an emitter layer and electrical contacts is thereby subjected to a stabilisation treatment step. In that step, hydrogen, for example from a hydrogenated silicon nitride layer, is introduced into the silicon substrate, for example within a zone (2) of maximum temperature. The silicon substrate may then purposively be cooled rapidly in a zone (3) in order to avoid hydrogen effusion. The silicon substrate may then purposively be maintained, for example in a zone (4), within a temperature range of from 230° C. to 450° C. for a period of, for example, at least 10 seconds. The previously introduced hydrogen may thereby assume an advantageous bond state. At the same time or subsequently, a regeneration may be carried out by generating excess minority charge carriers in the substrate at a temperature of at least 90° C., preferably at least 230° C. Overall, with the proposed method, a regeneration process in the production of a photovoltaic element may be accelerated significantly so that it may be carried out, for example, in a suitably modified continuous furnace.

There are provided a method for producing a photovoltaic element with stabilised efficiency, and a device which may be used to carry out the method, for example in the form of a specially adapted continuous furnace. A silicon substrate to be provided with an emitter layer and electrical contacts is thereby subjected to a stabilisation treatment step. In that step, hydrogen, for example from a hydrogenated silicon nitride layer, is introduced into the silicon substrate, for example within a zone (2) of maximum temperature. The silicon substrate may then purposively be cooled rapidly in a zone (3) in order to avoid hydrogen effusion. The silicon substrate may then purposively be maintained, for example in a zone (4), within a temperature range of from 230 C. to 450 C. for a period of, for example, at least 10 seconds. The previously introduced hydrogen may thereby assume an advantageous bond state. At the same time or subsequently, a regeneration may be carried out by generating excess minority charge carriers in the substrate at a temperature of at least 90 C., preferably at least 230 C. Overall, with the proposed method, a regeneration process in the production of a photovoltaic element may be accelerated significantly so that it may be carried out, for example, in a suitably modified continuous furnace.

According to an example, in a method for producing a photovoltaic element with stabilised efficiency, a silicon substrate may be provided with an emitter layer and electrical contacts, which may be subjected to a stabilisation treatment step. Hydrogen from a hydrogenated silicon nitride layer may be introduced into the silicon substrate, for example, within a zone of maximum temperature. The silicon substrate may then be cooled rapidly in a zone in order to avoid hydrogen effusion. The silicon substrate may then be maintained, for example in a zone within a temperature range of from 230 C. to 450 C. for a period of, for example, at least 10 seconds. The previously introduced hydrogen may thereby assume an advantageous bond state. At the same time or subsequently, a regeneration may be carried out by generating excess minority charge carriers in the substrate at a temperature of at least 90 C., preferably at least 230 C.

The infrared furnace includes a plurality of infrared lamps arrayed on one surface side of a work and a reflective surface provided on its opposite surface side. Outputs of the infrared lamps are locally adjusted, or intensity of the infrared rays incident on one work surface is locally adjusted by a member disposed between the infrared lamps and the one surface of the work. In this manner, variations in strength may be imparted to one and the same car part.

An electrode plate heating device includes a box; two roller groups installed in the box, where the two roller groups are spaced apart along a first direction, and each roller group includes at least one first guide roller for the electrode plate to be alternately wound around all the first guide rollers in the two roller groups successively; and a heating assembly installed in the box and configured to heat the electrode plate after coated.

A device for drying and sintering metal-containing ink on a substrate enables homogeneous irradiation of the substrate, has compact construction, and is simple and economical to produce. Optical infrared radiators have a cylindrical radiator tube and a longitudinal axis, and emit radiation having an IR-B radiation component of at least 30% and an IR-C radiation component of at least 5% of total radiator output power. The radiators are arranged in a module with their longitudinal axes running parallel to each other and transverse to the transport direction. They thereby irradiate on the surface of the substrate an irradiation field, which is divided into a drying zone and a sintering zone arranged downstream of the drying zone in the transport direction. The drying zone is exposed to at least 15% less average irradiation density than the sintering zone along a center axis running in the transport direction.

Disclosed are methods and apparatus for impressing a temperature profile onto a sheet steel component, wherein in one or more first areas, a temperature below the AC3 temperature can be impressed on the sheet steel component, and in one or more second areas, a temperature above the AC3 temperature can be impressed on the sheet steel component, and is characterized in that the sheet steel component is firstly preheated in a production furnace, and is then transferred into the thermal re-treatment station, wherein a radiation heat source is moved over the component in the thermal re-treatment station, by means of which the one or more first areas of the sheet steel component can be kept at a temperature below the AC3 temperature or cooled down further, and the one or more second areas can be heated to or kept at a temperature above the AC3 temperature.

A method and plant for thermally treating braking elements after a forming step, including a convective heating step at 150-300 C. and a infrared irradiation heating step, immediately in succession one relative to the other. A tunnel convection furnace is crossed by at least a first conveyor belt which translates along a first direction and on an upper face of which the braking elements are placed, is arranged laterally adjacent, with respect to the first direction, to an infrared heating tunnel furnace crossed by a second conveyor belt which translates along a second direction, parallel and opposite to the first one, and on an upper face of which the braking elements are placed. The first conveyor belt is larger than the second conveyor belt, and the braking elements appear in multiple side-by-side rows in a transverse and oblique direction with respect to the first and second directions. Robots placed at the opposite ends of the furnaces transfer the braking elements from the first conveyor belt to the second one or vice versa to a first end of the furnaces and place them on the first conveyor belt or second one to a second end of the furnaces being opposite to the first one, so as to change at will the sequence in which the infrared and convective heating steps are performed.