A mechanical measurement technique was investigated to correlate the degree of cross-linking in laminated ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) solar module encapsulation with the cured EVA shear response by means of a dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) measurement. The technique was demonstrated on sample disks fabricated with commercially available EVA encapsulant and standard polyvinyl fluoride (Tedlar) / polyethylene terephthalate (PET) / EVA backsheet (TPE). This DMA test was found to be able to predict the gel content of low, medium, and high cross-linked samples to at least a 95% confidence level. Furthermore, this method is non-destructive and could potentially be applied to photovoltaic modules after lamination, enabling a rapid metrology technique for process and quality control in module manufacturing
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