Custom Automation from Vention Increases Throughput by 50%

Learn how Solestial achieved a 50% throughput increase while maintaining delicate handling to reduce breakage.

Increased throughput and quality

Custom system delivered in 4 weeks

De-risking before making an investment

Custom Automation from Vention Increases Throughput by 50%

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Story Highlights

Derisking Automated Wafer Handling

24/7 support from Vention to streamline the entire process

Vention’s end-to-end service for design and deployment

Physics-based simulation to  de-risk the implementation

Standardized communication protocol for future compatibility

The Problem

Automating Material Handling While Reducing Breakage

Solestial is a provider of space-stable silicon photovoltaics. Their solutions offer competitive performance at lower cost than III-V multijunction solar products. After winning a key government contract, Solestial anticipated greater volumes and stricter turnaround targets. They needed a reliable way to automate the handling of delicate wafers for their solar cells. At the same time, since automating this key process was new for Solestial, they wanted to simulate before committing to hardware.

"As we were new to automating wafer loading, simulation was crucial for validating our design before hardware commitment. Vention's team provided excellent, direct support, making the project much smoother."

—Collin Jung, Tooling Engineer, Solestial

The Project

Automating a Unique Process with Vention's Platform

Solestial partnered with Vention to automate their waferloading process, aiming to increase throughput and reduce breakage. Vention’s intuitive and collaborative MachineBuilder platform ensured easy design and integration of existing systems. The flexibility ensured by Vention’s system allowed Solestial to set up a communication protocol for future scalability.

Vention shipped the custom gantry system pre-assembled to reduce the deployment timeline, fulfilling the project in just 4 weeks. Proactive support from Vention further helped Solestial successfully automate a unique process.

The Results

Simulation Drives 50% Throughput Gain

Simulating with Vention’s platform gave Solestial a precise preview of the system before deployment. This near-accurate simulation boosted confidence in the solution and made collaboration with the Vention team seamless.

The custom system built for Solestial increased throughput by 50% while minimizing product damage through delicate wafer handling. Automating a key process enabled Solestial to meet their throughput targets and stay on track for future scaling.