A NEW TEST METHOD FOR SHIPPING PALLETS OF SOLAR PRODUCTS

Shu-Tsung Hsu, Yean-San Long and Teng-Chun Wu

Center for Measurement Standards, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu, Taiwan, R.O.C.
E-mail: andersonhsu@itri.org.tw
IMETI 2015 J5009_SCI
No. 16-CSME-05, E.I.C. Accession 3891

ABSTRACT
The photovoltaic (PV) industry is expanding rapidly to meet the growing renewable-energy demands glob-
ally. The failure-rate analysis indicated that a large portion of the accelerated PV module qualification
failures were related to the failure of PV cell itself, which was leading to the yield loss of PV products dur-
ing shipping or transportation. Therefore, the damaged cell (or module) caused by shipping is always one
of the serious problems to impact the long-term reliability of PV product. This paper aims to propose a new
test method of reliability evaluation for shipping pallet of solar product. The first scenario is the test pallet
shipped in fab (e.g., fork-lift truck or hand-pallet truck). The second scenario is the test pallet transported
from fab to fab by different vehicle (e.g., truck, train, aircraft, and shipboard). Consequently, detailed results
were applied to SEMI Doc. 5431 and released as SEMI PV56-1214 by voting in December 2014. The solar
cell/module/system makers and buyers, or any other party interested like package design, can thus have a
common document to refer to when desired.

Keywords: solar; shipping; pallet.

UNE NOUVELLE MÉTHODE DE TEST POUR LE TRANSPORT DE PALETTES

DE PRODUITS SOLAIRES

RÉSUMÉ
L’industrie photovoltaïque (PV) se développe rapidement afin de répondre à la demande globale d’éner-
gies renouvelables. L’analyse statistique du taux de défaillance a démontré qu’une des raisons principales
de l’accélération des rejets après le contrôle de la qualité venait d’une défaillance des cellules PV elles-
mêmes, ce qui pointe vers une baisse de rendement des produits PV due aux conditions de l’envoi maritime
ou du transport. Ainsi, les cellules (ou modules) endommagées en cours de transport constituent l’un des
principaux problèmes affectant la fiabilité à long-terme des produits PV. Cet article vise à proposer une
nouvelle méthode d’évaluation de la fiabilité des expéditions de produits solaires palletisés. Le premier scé-
nario considère la pallette-test transportée dans l’usine par le chariot-élévateur ou le transpalette manuel.
Le second scénario considère la palette-test transportée d’usine à usine par le biais de différents moyens de
transport (par exemple, camion, train, avion et navire). Après quoi, les résultats détaillés ont été collectés
selon le document SEMI 5431 et publiés sous le titre SEMI PV56-1214 après avoir voté en décembre 2014.
Les fabricants et acquéreurs de produits solaires, ou toute autre partie intéréssée comme les concepteurs
d’emballage, auront ainsi un document commun auquel ils pourront se référer chaque fois que nécessaire.

Mots-clés : solaire; transport; palette.

Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2016 481
NOMENCLATURE
PV photovoltaic
c-Si crystalline silicon
EL electro-luminescence
Grms root-mean-square acceleration (g)
Pmax maximum power (W)
Rs series resistance (ohm)
Rsh shunt resistance (ohm)

1. INTRODUCTION
For c-Si technology, one of the main difficulties is to identify and eliminate the sources of mechanical
defects such as thermo-elastic stress and cracks leading to the loss of wafer integrity and ultimate breakage
of as-grown and processed Si cells. A significant challenge about using thinner crystalline silicon wafers for
solar cell manufacture is the reduced yield due to increased cell breakage. Cell breakage generally depends
on the stresses induced during the process, handling and transportation, and also relies on the presence of
defects such as micro-cracks. Therefore, shipping damage is one of the key problems of photovoltaic (PV )
failures in the field now. In addition, to avoid cell breakages or cracks during transportation, the detailed
documents and industry standards are necessary.
Since 2009, three task forces (TF) were held in Taiwan to develop SEMI PV shipping Standards, such as
Photovoltaic Module Vibration TF (2010), Photovoltaic Cell Vibration TF (2011) and Package Performance
TF (2012). ITRI coordinated the TFs to set up a series of experiments [1–7], and focused on the perfor-
mance evaluation for PV-cell and PV-module caused by transportation and shipping. Consequently, the TFs
released SEMIPV 23-1011 [8] for PV-module in 2011 and SEMI PV38-0912 [9–11] for PV-cell in 2012.
Nevertheless, these two standards only focus on the scenario during transportation from fab to fab.
This paper aims to propose a new test method to characterize c-Si PV cell and module, especially for the
coherent application scenarios occurred in fab (for process and handling) and from fab to fab (for transporta-
tion). The quality of PV product (cell and module) during different transit environments (e.g., hand-pallet
truck, fork-lift truck, truck, train, aircraft, and shipboard) can be monitored and controlled. It also documents
the best practices for reducing costs to benefit the end customers, further speeding up the development of
package design for PV product shipping. Consequently, detailed results were applied to SEMI Doc. 5431
and released as SEMI PV56-1214 [12] by voting in December 2014.

2. DEFECT OF PV CELLS INDUCED BY SHIPPING

Recent failure-rate analysis indicates that a large portion of the accelerated PV module qualification failures
are related to the failure of the cell itself [13]. The damage of shipping is always one of the top problems
of the PV failures in the field. The cell breakage mostly depends on the stresses induced in the processing,
handling and transportation, and also depends on the presence of defects such as cracks. The other main
defects are broken cell into pieces, crack or micro-cracks, cell with chips, holes in cells and cell bow, etc.
Ideally, PV cells with micro-cracks are already identified and rejected before they are integrated into the cell
string. This is achieved on the production by using e.g. ultrasonic methods [14] and electroluminescence
(EL) imaging [15]. However, even if this is done perfectly, during transportation, new micro-cracks may
occur. It is therefore imperative to develop reliable guidlines to facilitate the decision of cell or module
rejection.
Damage of cells will remain undetected if it is not apparent at first glance or it cannot be traced back
to its origin later when it is discovered. In addition, the defect of micro-crack seems not to affect power
loss initially, but the expanding of micro-crack seriously exposed the high reliability problem. Therefore,

482 Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2016
 Table 1. Reliability test for each shipping scenario of packaged solar product.
Reliability test Scenario Allocation
Incline impact shock Test pallet sliding along the inclined plane due to in fab
(ISTA 3E) [16] improper operation
Rotational flat drop shock Test pallet is turned by a corner or loaded by a in fab
(ISTA 3H) [17] lifting rope
Rotational edge drop shock Test pallet falling off due to improper operation in fab
(ISTA 3E)
Apply and hold compression Static stacking loading of test pallet in fab
(ISTA 3E)
Random vibration Shipping test pallet in fab by a fork-lift truck or a in fab
(ISTA 2A) [18] hand-pallet truck
Random vibration Transporting test pallet from a fab to the other fab by f2f
(ASTM 4169) [19] vehicles such as truck, train, aircraft and shipboard

degradation rate, induced by either micro-crack or abnormal electrical data (Pmax , Rs , Rsh ) [5], is more robust
than breakage rate to qualify the quality of cells. In addition, for cell boxes (or carton) inside each layer
of a package during shipping, the boxes allocated at top layer generally experienced higher Grms (response
acceleration) than the boxes at bottom layer, which certainly induce the relative motions seriously between
different cell boxes during shipping [5–7]. Furthermore, shipping package design need to evaluate how
to avoid unit’s resonance frequency happened during transit mean frequency, particularly in low frequency
region, which could make shipping cells have more excited vibration response and lead to damage cells
during transportation [7].

3. SCENARIOS FOR SIMULATION SHIPPING SOLAR PRODUCT

The scenario for shipping PV product in fab is handled by hand-pallet truck or fork-lift truck, the other
condition in the transportation environment from fab to fab (f2f) is using vehicles such as truck, train, aircraft
and shipboard. For a packaged PV-cell (or PV-module) or one-unit pallet composed of many PV-cell (or PV-
module), these test methods are based on the following application scenarios (Table 1), as appropriate.

4. TEST SAMPLE OF SOLAR PRODUCT

4.1. PV-Cell of Test Pallet
There are variable PV-cell packing format to be simulated in the transportation test. For example, a test
block means the stacking PV-cell in one block (Fig. 1a), a test carton means the stacking blocks of PV-cell
in one carton (Fig. 1b), and a test pallet means the complete packaging and filled unit- loads (or cartons) of
PV-cell for testing (Figs. 1c–d).

4.2. PV-Module of Test Pallet

There are two scenarios of test pellet to simulate PV-module during shipping or transportation. One is the
stacking PV-module for shipping in fab (Fig. 1e), and the other is the complete packaged PV-module for
transportation from fab to fab (Fig. 1g).

Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2016 483
484
Fig. 1. (a) one carton of PV-cell (in fab); (b) stacking cartons of PV-cell (in fab); (c) packaged PV-cell for vibration test; (d) packaged PV-cell for transportation
(f2f); (e) stacking PV-module (in fab); (f) packaged PV-module for vibration test; (g) packaged PV-module for transportation (f2f).

Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2016
 Table 2. Pre-test and post-test examination.
Test item Test condition
PV-cell PV-module
Visual inspection Carefully inspect each cell under an IEC 61215 [25]
illumination of not less than 1,000 lux
Maximum power determination IEC 60904-1 [26] IEC 61215
determination

5. APPARATUS FOR RELIABILITY TEST

In order to simulate each scenario for shipping solar product, the necessary equipment for reliability test
in this paper is as follows: temperature and humidity recording apparatus (ASTM D4332 [20]), chamber
and control apparatus (ASTM D4332), incline impact tester (ASTM D880 [21]), rotational edge drop test
system (ASTM D6179 [22]), rotational flat drop test system (ASTM D6179), compression test system (or
weight and load spreader) (ASTM D642 [23]), and random vibration test system (ASTM D4728 [24]).

6. TEST METHOD AND TEST SEQUENCE

This paper presents a new test method for determining performance of c-Si PV-cell and PV-module in fab
during shipping (handled by fork-lift truck or hand- pallet truck) or in transportation environment (shipped
by truck, train, aircraft or shipboard) from fab to fab. This work aims to simulate and consider all the
handling, process and transportation scenarios for test pallet of solar product. Test pallet means a complete,
filled unit- load during the test of PV-cell or PV-module (Figs. 1c–d and e–g), based on different application
scenario (Table 1) and specific testing procedure (Fig. 2). The testing flow includes pre-test, reliability test
and post-test.

6.1. Pre-Test Examinations and Requirements

1. PV product: The pre-test examination consists of a selection of IEC tests and measurements on the
samples according to the items listed in Table 2. If a test of sample fails, it shall be replaced by a good
sample. All of recommendable samples are in the same efficiency classification. All the samples’
visual inspection, maximum power, and sample condition shall be recorded.
2. Packaged materials: Record the outside dimensions of length, width and height (L ×W × H) for each
test package appearance.

6.2. Reliability Test

In accordance with standards include ISTA and ASTM, five reliability tests shall be performed for test pallet
of PV product, and the test sequence is indicated in Table 3.

6.3. Post-Test Examinations and Requirements

1. PV product: The post-test examinations consist of a selection of IEC tests and measurements on
samples according to the items listed in Table 2. All the test samples’ visual inspection, maximum
power, cell condition shall be recorded.
2. Package materials: Record the outside dimensions of length, width and height (L ×W × H) for each
package of PV product by visual inspection, and take photos of package appearance for reference.
No serious distortion of appearance, no damage which would influence the protective performance of
package materials is required [27].

Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2016 485
Fig. 2. Test plan and testing procedure for pallet test of PV-cell or PV-module (∗ means test item for cell or module; ∗∗
only for package).

3. Power degradation (%): The average power (Pmax ) degradation of packaged PV-cell (or PV-module)
does not exceed 3% after the test.

4. Breakage rate (%): Breakage rate is defined as the broken cells over to the total cells in each carton,
and average breakage rate does not exceed 1% at least [9].

486 Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2016
 Table 3. Reliability test and test level.
Reliability test (1–5) Test level
Temperature and humidity (ASTM D4332) ambient
Controlled temperature and humidity (ISTA 3E) temperature and humidity chosen from chart
1. incline impact shock (ISTA 3E) V = 1.1 m/s
2. rotational flat drop shock (ISTA 3H) H = 100 mm
3. rotational edge drop shock (ISTA 3E) H = 200 mmm
4. apply and hold compression (ISTA 3E) calculated test load (kg)
5. random vibration (ASTM 4169) overall Grms level, 0.52g, 20–500 Hz, 180 min.

Table 4. SEMI PV shipping standards [28, 29].

Note: 1. Pre-test; 2. Reliability test; 3. Post-test; ∗ refer to Table 2.

Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2016 487
7. CONCLUSIONS

This paper proposed a new test method to characterize for shipping pallet of solar product, especially for
the coherent scenarios occurred in fab (for process and handling) and from fab to fab (for transportation).
Results were applied to SEMI Doc. 5431 and released as SEMI PV56-1214 by voting in 2014. Table 4 also
analyzed all the SEMI shipping standards includes SEMI PV23-1011, SEMI PV38-0912 and SEMI PV44-
0513 [27]. Therefore, PV products’ makers and buyers, or any other party interested like package designers,
can thus have a common testing standard to refer to when desired. Furthermore, this work is helpful to
monitor the reliability and performance of PV product, and documents the best practices for reducing costs
to benefit the end customers.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors appreciate the contributions from the Taiwan SEMI Package Performance TF, especially the
co-leaders David Lee (www.kdi.tw), Jay Lin (www.pvguider.com) and Ivan Chou (www.eterbright.tw).

REFERENCES
1. Chen, C.W., Lin, I., Liao, J.Y., Wu, H.S., Wu, T.C. and Lee, K.T., “Power degradation of crystalline-silicon PV
module in transporting environment”, in Proceedings 26th European PV Solar Energy Conference, 2011.
2. Hsu. S.T., Long, Y.S., Wu, T.C., Lee K.D. and Chou, Y.H., “Characterization of crystalline silicon PV
cells in truck transportation environment”, in Proceedings China PV Technology International Conference,
2012.
3. Ke, K.H., Hsu, S.T., Hsu, T.C., Lee, K.D. and Long Y.S., “Definition, classification and inspection methods of
cracks in photovoltaic cell – Cracks induced by vibration caused by transportation", in Proceedings China PV
Technology International Conference, 2012.
4. Ke, K.H., Hsu, S.T., Chen, Y.T., Hsu, T.C. and Long Y.S., “Classification and inspection methods of cracks in
photovoltaic cell – Induced by transportation vibration”, International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering
Conference, 2013.
5. Hsu, S.T. and Long, Y.S., “Characterization and defect mechanism of c-Si photovoltaic cells in truck and air
transportation environment”, International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference, 2013.
6. Hsu, S.T., Long, Y.S. and Li, Y.T., “Characterization of solar cells in transportation”, in Proceedings 40th IEEE
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2014.
7. Hsu, S.T., Long, Y.S. and Ma, H.C., “Vibration influence for transporting photovoltaic cell”, Applied Mechanics
and Materials, Vol. 764–765, pp. 575–578, 2015.
8. SEMI PV23-1011, “Test method for mechanical vibration of crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules in
shipping environment”.
9. SEMI PV38-0912, “Test method for mechanical vibration of c-Si PV cells in shipping environment”.
10. Hsu, S.T., Long, Y.S. and Wu, T.C., “Development a new standard for transport simulation on complete PV-cell
shipping units”, in Proceedings International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference, 2013.
11. Hsu, S.T. and Ma, H.C., “Standardize test methods for determining performance of solar cells and package
during transportation”, in Proceedings 29th European PV Solar Energy Conference, 2014.
12. SEMI PV56-1214, “Test methods for performance criteria of photovoltaic cell and module package”.
13. TamizhMani, G., Li, B., Arends, T., Kuitche, J., Raghuraman, B., Shisler, W., Farnsworth, K., Voropayev A.
and Parker, D., “Failure analysis of module design qualification testing-III: 1997 -2005 vs. 2005–2007 vs. 2007–
2009”, in Proceedings 35th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 20–25 June, 2010.
14. Dallas, W., Polupan, O. and Ostapenko, S., “Resonance ultrasonic vibrations for crack detection in photovoltaic
silicon wafers”, Meas. Sci. Technol. Vol. 18, pp. 852–858, 2007.
15. Fuyuky, T., Kondo, H., Yamazaki, T., Takahaschi, Y. and Uraoka, Y., “Photographic surveying of minority carrier
diffusion length in polycrystalline silicon solar cells by electroluminescence”, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 86,
p. 262108, 2005.
16. ISTA 3E, “Unitized loads of same product”.

488 Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2016
17. ISTA 3H, “Performance test for products or packaged-products in mechanically handled bulk transport contain-
ers”.
18. ISTA 2A, “Packaged-products weighing 150 lb (68 kg) or less”.
19. ASTM D4169, “Standard practice for performance testing of shipping containers and systems”.
20. ASTM D4332, “Standard practice for conditioning containers, packages, or packaging components for testing”.
21. ASTM D880, “Standard test method for impact testing for shipping containers and systems”.
22. ASTM D6179, “Standard test methods for rough handling of unitized loads and large shipping cases and crates”.
23. ASTM 642, “Standard test method for determining compressive resistance of shipping containers, components,
and unit loads”.
24. ASTM D4728, “Standard test method for random vibration testing of shipping containers”.
25. IEC 61215, “Crystalline silicon terrestrial photovoltaic (PV) modules – Design qualification and type approval”.
26. IEC 60904-1, “Photovoltaic devices – Part 1: Measurements of photovoltaic current-voltage characteristics”.
27. SEMI PV44-0513, “Specification for package protection technology for PV modules”.
28. Hsu, S.T., “An overview of photovoltaic products transportation standards: A case study developing SEMI PV
standards in Taiwan”, in Proceedings International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference, 2013.
29. Hsu, S.T., “Research of photovoltaic products shipping test methods standards”, Journal of Applied Sound and
Vibration, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 1–10, 2013.

Transactions of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 40, No. 4, 2016 489