EuroWire November 2014

News Corporate

Hayakawa wires used to help save lives

new technology, Sure Chill manufactured wire harnesses in-house on an ad-hoc basis, which resulted in inconsistencies in production. Hayakawa was approached to redesign the wire harness and create a better solution for the company’s mains powered refrigerator. reverse engineered the original sample and implemented a number of value engineered concepts to improve the overall performance whilst achieving a cost effective solution. The project delivered a number of significant improvements in assembly for The Sure Chill Company. managing director Phill Harry said: “We are proud to be associated with such revolutionary technology produced by a very forward-thinking and dynamic company. “It has been great to work with such a successful and driven Welsh organisation that is helping to save both lives and the planet.” Hayakawa – UK Website : www.hayakawa.co.uk Technicians at Hayakawa Commenting collaboration, on the successful Hayakawa organic absorber gives a significant boost in terms of efficiency.” The Sheffield team found that by spray-painting the perovskite they could make prototype solar cells with efficiency of up to 11 per cent. Professor Lidzey said: “This study advances existing work where the perovskite layer has been deposited from solution using laboratory scale techniques. It’s a significant step towards efficient, low-cost solar cell devices made using high volume roll-to-roll processing methods.” Solar power is becoming an increasingly important component of the worldwide renewables energy market and continues to grow at a remarkable rate despite the difficult economic environment. Professor Lidzey said: “I believe that new thin-film photovoltaic technologies are going to have an important role to play in driving the uptake of solar-energy, and that perovskite based cells are emerging as likely thin-film candidates.”

Wrexham, UK-based Hayakawa UK has manufactured and supplied wire harnesses for use in a revolutionary refrigeration system that ensures the safe storage of vaccines throughout the world. The company has supplied a redesigned wire harness solution for a cooling system developed by Snowdonia, Wales, UK-based The Sure Chill Company. The highly advanced technology is set to transform the refrigeration, food and beverage, and healthcare industries by bringing reliable cooling to countries without adequate power. The new refrigerators are currently being used to store vaccines in developing nations to help combat life-threatening illnesses such as polio, as well as maintaining the freshness and preventing the damage of food. Inventor Ian Tansley, of Sure Chill, with investment from UK Business Angel Of The Year 2012 Peter Saunders OBE, has identified a robust, reliable and cost-effective way to store vaccines, foods and drinks in optimum condition. He has developed an entirely new solution and, unlike traditional fridges A team of scientists at the University of Sheffield, UK, are the first to fabricate perovskite solar cells using a spray-painting process – a discovery that could help cut the cost of solar electricity. Experts from the University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering have previously used the spray-painting method to produce solar cells using organic semiconductors – but using perovskite is a major step forward. Efficient organometal halide perovskite-based photovoltaics were first demonstrated in 2012. They are now a very promising new material for solar cells as they combine high efficiency with low materials costs. The spray-painting process wastes very little of the perovskite material and can be scaled to high volume manufacturing – similar to applying paint to cars and graphic printing. Lead researcher Professor David Lidzey said: “There is a lot of excitement around perovskite-based photovoltaics.

▲ ▲ Ian Tansley, of Sure Chill, with Peter Saunders OBE

that require a continual power source, Sure Chill’s technology needs very little power. It can actively cool without power for over 12 days in an ambient temperature of 32°C. The technology also achieves an even temperature throughout the fridge compartment with no stratification.

During the development of this radically

Discovery could help cut the cost of solar energy

offers the potential to combine the high performance of mature solar cell technologies with the low embedded energy costs of production of organic photovoltaics.” While most solar cells are manufactured using energy intensive materials like silicon, perovskite, by comparison, requires much less energy to make. By spray-painting the perovskite layer in air the team hopes the overall energy used to make a solar cell can be reduced further. Professor Lidzey said: “The best certified efficiencies from organic solar cells are around 10 per cent. “Perovskite cells now have efficiencies of up to 19 per cent. This is not so far behind that of silicon at 25 per cent – the material that dominates the world-wide solar market.” He added: “The perovskite devices we have created still use similar structures to organic cells. What we have done is replace the key light absorbing layer – the organic layer – with a spray-painted perovskite.

University of Sheffield – UK Website : www.sheffield.ac.uk

“Using a perovskite absorber instead of an

“Remarkably, this class of material

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November 2014