French specialty chemicals and advanced materials company Arkema announced it has brought online new Kynar fluoropolymer production capacities in China. The company said the 25% capacity increase, which was announced in October 2016, is aimed at better serving its Asian customers, especially in the storage and photovoltaic industries.
Arkema’s PVDF plant in Changshu was set up in 2011, and its capacity was then raised by 50% in 2012. The company said the manufacturing facility is Asia’s largest PVFD factory.
Arkema’s Kynar PVDF film is used by the solar industry for PV panel backsheet protection. The company claims its films provide a very good high temperature and humidity performance, and that their UV resistance as well as the stability of their white color, which contributes to reflecting light toward the silicon, are key elements in the longevity and increased energy yield of solar panels.
Furthermore, Arkema produces the ethylene/vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) Evatane for the encapsulation of silicon cells and the protection of electrical circuits, and the organic peroxides Luperox Solar used for the cross-linking of EVA – served as cell encpasulation – speed up the production rates of solar panels. Moreover, the company provides the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) Altuglas® HT 121 for photovoltaic applications, and the flexible nanostructured thermoplastic polymer Apolhya Solar, which is designed to encapsulate the components of photovoltaic modules.
Popular content
The company has also developed a back sheet, branded KPK, comprising two Kynar films over a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) core film, in partnership with German company Krempel.
Arkema has a wide range of facilities in Europe and throughout North, Central and South America.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
4 comments
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.