Page 17 - MetalForming May 2010

Parabolic trough solar-thermal collectors like those shown here will soon appear in huge solar fields throughout the western United States. One concentrated-solar- power field can consume as much as
6 million sq. ft. of sheetmetal, in addi- tion to the fabricated aluminum frames that support the collectors.
open up for others in the supply chain. Magna’s Cosma stamping facility in Troy, MI, has adapted its press lines and robotic resistance-welding cells to manufacture and assemble reflective racking and structural components for OEM manufacturer Skyline Solar, Mountain View, CA.
Likewise, Scottsdale, AZ-based OEM Stirling Energy Systems contracts with Tower Automotive to fabricate metal support structures and stamp alu- minum substrate to which it attaches mirror facets. Again, heat collects at the mirror surface, and then is reflected into a power-conversion unit that con- verts the heat to drive a generator.
Summing up this expanding market, Hames adds that, “during just the last two years, this industry has installed more than 40 million lb. of extruded- aluminum frames for solar applica- tions, and we’re only at the tip of the iceberg.”
Solar-Thermal
on a Smaller Scale
Solar-thermal systems on a much smaller scale, for water heating in homes and businesses, including community swimming pools, also have gained a foothold. And in my hometown of Cleveland, OH, one metal-service cen- ter has carved a substantial niche in the market, processing specialized sheet- metal and then laser-welding the mate- rial to fabricate collector fins.
German-based Alanod-Solar has begun to manufacture its Miro-Fin absorbers at a metal-processing facility it purchased late in 2007—Alanod- Westlake Metal Industries, in North Ridgeville, OH, just a few miles west of Cleveland. Alanod, which takes a dif- ferent approach to collecting solar ener- gy by offering systems that absorb rather than reflect the sun’s rays, made its name in the lighting industry by mar-
keting reflective-aluminum fixtures for the energy-efficient T5 lamps that have taken over the market. And, likewise, for several years Alanod-Westlake Metals has enjoyed—and continues to do so— tremendous success turning the spe- cially coated coils of aluminum into blanks for light-fixture OEMs all over the United States.
Now Alanod-Westlake Metals is accompanying its parent company on a venture to expand the solar-thermal industry in North America, hoping to mirror the success it’s had in Europe with its absorptive solar collectors.
“The company recognized starting in 2000-2001 that its retrofit lighting prod- ucts had probably a 10- to 15-yr. run in the market, as large companies changed over their lighting fixtures to become more energy efficient,” says Alanod- Westlake Metals vice president Frank Lee. “When they learned that the PVD coating process they use to apply the reflective material to aluminum also could be used to apply an absorptive coating to aluminum as well as copper substrate, it quickly made a move into the solar-thermal industry. Its solar- energy presence in Europe has grown tremendously since then, and now Alan- od looks to do the same here.”
Alanod-Westlake Metals historical- ly has specialized in processing light- gauge prepainted steel and coated alu- minum—blanking and slitting primarily, with a bit of stamping and fabricating thrown in. Nearly all of its
To manufacture absorber fins for flat- plate solar-thermal collectors, Alanod- Westlake Metals’ laser-welding line joins coated 0.5-mm-thick aluminum, slit to 120-mm wide, to 10-mm-dia. copper tube. Strip and tube feed from coils simultaneously through the 60-ft.-long production line that runs continuously at 7.5 m/min.
work is surface critical.
“We got into that work in the late
’70s and through the ’90s primarily for the appliance industry,” says Lee. “In the mid-’90s Alanod began contracting us to blank its coated reflective materi- al for lighting OEMs, and in 1999 asked us to install a slitter specifically to sup- port its lighting customers. By 2007 we were slitting more than 1 million lb. of the material per month, accounting for 60 percent of our overall throughput. Finally, in November 2007, Alanod acquired 75 percent of the company.”
Solar-Fin Production Line the First in North America
When the parent company sought an entry point to the North American mar- ket for its solar-thermal collector mate- rials, called mirotherm (coated alu- minum sheet) and sunselect (coated
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A flying cutoff die cuts welded fins to length. Note the gentle corruga- tion pattern to the strip to add rigid- ity. A protective film on the top of the strip maintains the critical sur- face integrity during processing.
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