In the context of renewable energies, photovoltaics plays a special role because in the development stages it was heavily supported by government programs.

As a result the automation of production equipment reached a very high level within a few years. In addition to the primary production process of crystalline solar wafers, logistics, that means the lifting and transporting of wafers which are prone to breakage provide a special challenge.

When lifting solar wafers with special vacuum grippers not only one but two or more wafers can cling together during the lifting. During the subsequent transportation this can result in breakage and costly production losses if these conditions of multiple layers are not detected early in the process.

For these applications ROLAND ELECTRONIC has developed a special single-sided solar sensor based on the eddy current principle for the detection of these dual layers conditions. In collaboration with the well-known manufacturer of vacuum components, the Schmalz Company, ROLAND ELECTRONIC developed a modified sensor that can be directly integrated into the Wafer Gripper.