As one of the important raw materials of photovoltaic crucible, quartz sand plays an important role in the quality of photovoltaic crucible. So, what quality quartz sand is used for the crucible? How to differentiate? What is the market demand and supply situation? Let’s take a look together!
1. The main ore sources of quartz sand used in photovoltaic crucibles are: Chinese mines, American mines, and imported mines other than non-US mines (mainly from India, and quartz shares are close to an all-inclusive monopoly).
2. The quartz sand for photovoltaic crucible is divided into inner, middle and outer layers. The inner layer mainly uses American ore sand, the middle layer uses Indian ore sand, and the outer layer uses domestic ore sand. The ratio of inner layer, middle layer and outer layer is 4:3 respectively. :3.
3. Since the Indian ore is mainly monopolized by the Quartz Company, the Quartz Company imports the Indian ore and then purifies it in China. This part of the purified quartz sand is not imported high-purity quartz sand, but has become the domestic quartz sand and domestic high-quality quartz sand. Pure quartz sand. After the Indian ore is purified in China, it is mainly used in the middle layer of the crucible, and about 5% of the total output accounts for about 5% of the total output (as the Indian ore is getting deeper and deeper, the purity has also increased, and it is expected to increase to 10% next year). Quartz sand can also be used as inner layer crucible (mainly used in small size or inner layer doping). At present, the mining volume of ore in India is relatively large, and the enthusiasm for expanding production is relatively high, and the supply will not become a bottleneck.
4. Can the Indian mine be used as the inner layer of quartz sand in large-sized crucibles? As the Indian mine continues to increase with the mining depth, the purity also increases significantly. Although the purified high-purity quartz sand from the Indian mine has a higher purity index than the American ore sand, another key index is A large number of bubbles will appear during the use of the crucible, and the appearance of a large number of bubbles will lead to local collapse of the large-sized crucible under high temperature, which will lead to quality and safety production accidents.
5. After the Chinese quartz ore is purified, it is mainly used in the outer layer of the crucible. The ore mining in China is expanding rapidly, and the supply is unlikely to become a bottleneck.
6. American ore sand is the only quartz vein ore associated with granite found in the world at present. At present, this mine is unique to Unimin in the United States and TQC in Norway (the two mines are jointly mined). In addition to the relatively high purity, the advantages of this mine are: When the inner layer sand is used, it is not easy to generate air bubbles, and it has become the actual optimal solution to use American ore sand as the inner layer of the quartz crucible at this stage.
7. After the quartz ore is screened and purified, it becomes the high-purity quartz sand used in photovoltaic crucibles. At present, the domestic purification technology and process have reached the most advanced foreign level, and China can also undertake the OEM business of quartz sand purification from foreign manufacturers. Therefore, the source of the ore is the main difference between the outer, middle and inner sand, rather than the purification production process.
Therefore, the following concepts must be distinguished: quartz sand is not equivalent to domestic high-purity quartz sand, imported high-purity quartz sand Chinese-made high-purity quartz sand is not equivalent to imported high-purity quartz sand; imported high-purity quartz sand refers to imported high-purity quartz sand Special high-purity quartz sand for inner layer purified with American ore.