EP2730510A1 - Packaging of polycrystalline silicon - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves supplying polycrystalline silicon in a metering system. The polycrystalline silicon transferred from the metering system is separated into fine fractions by sieving, and filling into a synthetic bag arranged under the metering system. The weight of synthetic bag filled with the polycrystalline silicon is determined. The filling operation is terminated after reaching a target weight of synthetic bag. The height of the polycrystalline silicon filled in synthetic bag is set to less than 450 mm by a clamping device during entire filling operation. An independent claim is included for a clamping device for packing polycrystalline silicon in synthetic bag.

Description

The invention relates to the packaging of polycrystalline silicon.

Polycrystalline silicon, hereinafter referred to as polysilicon, u. a. as starting material for the production of electronic components and solar cells.

It is obtained by thermal decomposition of a silicon-containing gas or a silicon-containing gas mixture. This process is referred to as chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

On a large scale, this process is realized in so-called Siemens reactors. The polysilicon accumulates in the form of rods. The polysilicon rods are usually comminuted by manual methods.

There are a number of mechanical methods are known in which manually pre-broken polysilicon coarse fracture is further crushed using conventional crushers. Mechanical breaking methods are for example in US 8021483 B2 described.

US 8074905 discloses a device comprising a roughing polysilicon feeder in a crusher plant, the crusher plant and a polysilicon rupture classifying plant, characterized in that the crushing plant is provided with a controller providing variable adjustment of at least one crushing parameter in the crusher plant and / or at least one sorting parameter in the sorting system allows.

For applications in the semiconductor and solar industries, the least possible contaminated polysilicon fraction is desired. To accomplish this, various cleaning methods are used.

US 2010/0001106 A1 describes a method for preparing highly pure classified polysilicon fraction, in which a polysilicon from the Siemens method comprising comminuted shredding tools, and a screening device by means of a device and is classified, and the thus obtained polysilicon fraction is purified by means of a cleaning bath, characterized in that the crushing tools and the sieve device consistently have a surface in contact with the polysilicon of a material which contaminates the polysilicon break only with such foreign particles, which are then selectively removed by the cleaning bath.

Also, silicon dust adhered to the debris is considered contamination because it reduces the yield of crystal pulling.

Out US 2010/0052297 A1 discloses a process for the production of polycrystalline silicon comprising fracturing polycrystalline silicon deposited on thin rods in a Siemens reactor, classifying the fractions into size classes of about 0.5 mm to greater than 45 mm, and treating the fragments by means of compressed air or dry ice Remove silicon dust from the debris with no chemical wet cleaning.

However, the polycrystalline silicon must be packaged after the comminution steps and any cleaning or dedusting that may be performed before it is transported to the customer.

Consequently, when packing it must be ensured that this takes place with as little contamination as possible.

Usually polysilicon breakage for the electronics industry in 5-kg bags with a weight tolerance of +/- max. 50 g packed. For the solar industry, polysilicon is broken in Bags with a weight of 10 kg and a weight tolerance of +/- max. 100 g usual.

Tubular bag machines, which are in principle suitable for packaging of silicon fracture, are commercially available. A corresponding packaging machine is for example in DE 36 40 520 A1 described.

However, polysilicon breakage is a sharp-edged, non-free-flowing bulk material with a weight of the individual silicon fragments of up to 2500 g. Therefore, it must be ensured during packaging that the material does not puncture the usual plastic bags during filling, or even completely destroyed in the worst case.

To prevent this, the commercial packaging machines are to be suitably modified for the purpose of packaging polysilicon.

Out US 7013620 B2 For example, there is known an apparatus for inexpensively fully automated transporting, weighing, portioning, filling and packaging of a high purity polysilicon fracture comprising a polysilicon breakthrough chute, a polysilicon fracture weighing device connected to a hopper, baffles made of silicon, a filling device comprising forming a plastic bag comprising a deionizer which prevents static charge and thus particle contamination of the plastic film, a plastic bag filled with polysilicon fracture, a flow box mounted above a conveyor trough, weighing device, filling device and welding device, which causes particle contamination of the polysilicon fracture prevents a conveyor belt with a magnetic inductive detector for the welded polysilicon break filled plastic bag, wherein all components, ie e come in contact with the polysilicon, reinforced with silicon or covered with a highly wear-resistant plastic.

DE 103 46 881 A1 discloses a plant for filling and closing of open plastic bags, which is equipped with a filling machine which includes a rotor rotatably driven about a vertical axis, which is equipped with a plurality of filling devices, to which the plastic bags to be filled can be attached, and the filling devices welding units are assigned for producing the closure seams after removal of the filled plastic sack from the filling means, and the system is still equipped with a linear discharge conveyor for transporting the filled plastic bags from the filling machine, characterized in that the rotor of the filling machine at a constant speed driven as well as with the filler neck associated Verschlussnahtschweißeinrichtungen is equipped, and also assigned to the rotor of the filling machine to the individual welding means pivotally mounted sack support means, the a from the filling means a Take over plastic bags immediately after the manufacture of the closure seams of the welding equipment and transferred to a drivable with the rotational speed of the rotor, as well as tangentially arranged stationary discharge belt.

It has been found that in such devices often jamming of the silicon fragments in the filling device occurs. This is disadvantageous because it leads to increased downtime of the machine.

Also penetrate the plastic bag, which also leads to a shutdown of the plant and contamination of the silicon.

In addition, it has been found that during the packaging of fragments of a certain size class, eg fracture sizes of 20 to 60 mm, also undesirable smaller silicon particles or fragments arise. The proportion of such unwanted particles is 17000-23000 ppmw for such fraction sizes. Subsequently, all fragments or particles of silicon, which have such a size that they can be separated by a mesh screen with square mesh 8mm x 8mm, are referred to as fine fraction. The fines are undesirable for the customer as they have a negative impact on customer processes. If the fine fraction is separated from the customer, for example by sieving, this means an increased effort.

In addition to the automatic packaging of polycrystalline silicon as after US 7013620 B2 is also a manual packaging of polycrystalline silicon in plastic bag in question. By manual packaging, the fine fraction can be significantly reduced, for the above-mentioned fraction size 20-60 mm from 17000 ppmw to 1400 ppmw.

However, manual packaging means a high expenditure and increased personnel costs. Therefore, manual packaging is out of the question for economic reasons. In addition, it would be desirable to reduce the fines even further than feasible by manual packaging.

Therefore, the object of the invention was to automatically pack polycrystalline silicon and reduce the resulting fines to an extremely low level. The task was also to provide a device suitable for this purpose.

• Bereitstellen von polykristallinem Silicium in einem Dosiersystem;
• Einfüllen von polykristallinem Silicium aus dem Dosiersystem, durch welches Feinanteil mittels Sieben abgetrennt wird, in einen unter den Dosiersystem angeordneten Kunststoffbeutel;

wobei während des Einfüllens das Gewicht des Kunststoffbeutels mit dem eingefüllten polykristallinen Silicium bestimmt und nach dem Erreichen eines Zielgewichts der Einfüllvorgang beendet wird;
wobei während des gesamten Einfüllvorgangs eine Fallhöhe des polykristallinen Siliciums von Dosiersystem in Kunststoffbeutel mittels wenigstens einer Klemmvorrichtung bei weniger als 450 mm gehalten wird.The object of the invention is achieved by a method for packaging polycrystalline silicon, comprising the following steps

• Providing polycrystalline silicon in a dosing system;
• Filling polycrystalline silicon from the metering system, by means of which fine fraction is separated by sieving, into a plastic bag arranged below the metering system;

wherein during filling determines the weight of the plastic bag with the filled polycrystalline silicon and after reaching a target weight of the filling process is terminated;
wherein a drop height of the polycrystalline silicon from the dosing system into plastic bags is maintained at less than 450 mm by means of at least one clamping device during the entire filling operation.

Preferably, a drop height of the polycrystalline silicon from the dosing system into plastic bags is maintained at less than 300 mm by means of at least one clamping device during the entire filling operation.

The object is achieved by a clamping device for a device for packaging polycrystalline silicon in a plastic bag, which acts on the plastic bag so that it is compressed laterally by a clamping at a certain point, so that there reduces its cross-section, said clamping can be solved at any time in whole or in part, so that the cross section of the plastic bag increases again at this point.

The object is also achieved by a method for packaging polycrystalline silicon by filling in a plastic bag, using at least one clamping device which acts on the plastic bag so that it is compressed at a certain point laterally by a clamping, so that there Cross-section reduced and einzullende polycrystalline silicon in the vertical direction can reach only to this point of the plastic bag, which clamping can be dissolved in whole or in part, so that increases the cross-section of the plastic bag at this point again and the polycrystalline silicon from this point in vertical Direction in the plastic bag can continue to move down.

It has been shown that the fines produced during packaging are significantly lower than conventional ones automatic packaging process. For example, the fines fraction for fraction size 20-60 mm is 1400 ppmw or less.

The invention is based on silicon fragments of specific size classes, which were produced by comminuting a rod deposited by means of the Siemens process and subsequent sorting and classification.

• Bruchgröße 0 [mm] 1 bis 5
• Bruchgröße 1 [mm] 4 bis 15
• Bruchgröße 2 [mm] 10 bis 40

The size class is defined as the longest distance of two points on the surface of a silicon fragment (= maximum length):

• Break size 0 [mm] 1 to 5
• Break size 1 [mm] 4 to 15
• Break size 2 [mm] 10 to 40

• Bruchgröße 3 [mm] 20 bis 60
• Bruchgröße 4 [mm] 45 bis 120
• Bruchgröße 5 [mm] 90 bis 200

In addition to the size classes mentioned above, the classification and sorting of polycrystalline silicon into the following fractions is also common:

• Breaking size 3 [mm] 20 to 60
• Breakage size 4 [mm] 45 to 120
• Breakage size 5 [mm] 90 to 200

In each case, at least 90% by weight of the fracture fraction are within the stated size ranges.

The polysilicon fragments are transported via a conveyor trough and separated by means of at least one sieve into coarse and fine fragments.

Unlike in the prior art, where the fragments were weighed by means of a dosing and dosed to a target weight, then discharged through a discharge chute and transported to a packaging unit and packaged, carried out in the process of the invention dosage and packaging in one step.

The dosing system is designed in such a way that fines, ie very fine particles and chips of the polysilicon, are removed by sieving before the filling process. The sieve may be a perforated plate, a bar screen, an optopneumatic sorting or any other suitable device. Depending on the size of the break, different screens can be used. For fraction sizes from 20 to 60 mm, sieves with a mesh width of 3 mm are preferably used. For break sizes 45 to 120 mm, sieves with a mesh width of 9 mm are preferably used.

Preferably, the screens used at least partially comprise a low-contamination material such as e.g. a carbide. By hard metals is meant sintered Carbidhartmetalle. In addition to the conventional tungsten carbide-based hard metals, there are also hard metals, which preferably include titanium carbide and titanium nitride as hard materials, the binder phase comprising nickel, cobalt and molybdenum.

Preferably, at least the mechanically stressed, wear-sensitive surface regions of sieves comprise cemented carbide or ceramic / carbides. Preferably, at least one screen is made entirely of hard metal. They may be partially or fully provided with a coating. The coating used is preferably a material selected from the group consisting of titanium nitride, titanium carbide, aluminum titanium nitride and DLC (Diamond Like Carbon).

The polysilicon fracture is introduced into the plastic bag by means of a metering unit, preferably comprising a conveyor trough suitable for conveying a product stream of debris, at least one screen suitable for separating the product stream into coarse and fine debris, a coarse metering trough for coarse debris and a fine metering trough for fine fragments.

By separating the product stream into coarse and fine particles, a more accurate dosing of the polysilicon is possible.

The size distribution of polysilicon fragments in the output product stream depends i.a. from the previous crushing processes. The type of division into coarse and fine fragments and the size of the coarse or fine fragments depend on the desired end product, which is to be dosed and packaged.

A typical fraction size distribution includes fragments of sizes 1 to 200 mm.

For example, fragments below a certain size can be removed from the dosing unit by means of a sieve, preferably by means of a rod sieve, in conjunction with a discharge channel. So it can be accomplished that only fragments of a very specific size class are dosed and packaged.

By transporting the polysilicon on the conveyor again arise undesirable product sizes. These are separated in the dosing system by means of a sieve.

The removed smaller fragments are reclassified in downstream processes, dosed and packaged or put to another use.

The dosage of the polysilicon over the two dosing channels can be automated.

It is also preferred to divide the silicon product stream into a plurality of integrated metering and packaging systems via a controlled swirl chute.

The polycrystalline silicon is filled by the dosing directly into the plastic bag, in particular a PE bag, and preferably together with the packaging and a gripper system weighed. The weighing system is based on the system of a gross balance.

The clamping device serves to compress the bag during filling. Thus, the polycrystalline silicon can not fall over the entire bag length. The clamping device serves as a kind of fall brake, which is pressed against the plastic bag, whereby the cross section of the plastic bag is first reduced and then released controlled.

Thus, the product flow can be controlled and it is achieved a filling of the silicon in the prefabricated bag, in which only a small amount of fines is produced.

The separation of fines is preferably carried out via dosing, at the end Abtrennmechanismen, in particular bar screens, are attached, which accomplish the separation of the fines.

Preferably, the at least one clamping device opens when a certain filling level and a certain weight of polycrystalline silicon in the bag are reached.

By the invention it is possible to lead the product stream finely divided to the bag. This is done with low-contamination sieves on the dosing system. Through a targeted arrangement of the dosing (additional Feindosierrinne), it is possible to bring the product stream as close as possible to the opened bag. This allows the material flow to be filled into the bag with the lowest possible drop height. Preferably, the filling takes place via an inlet funnel. The inlet funnel preferably consists of a low-contamination material for silicon.

By means of suitable sensors, the drop height that further reduces during the filling process is detected.

As soon as a drop height of almost 0 mm is reached, the product clamping can be released, so that the material sags down to the next clamp or the bottom of the bag.

Preferably, damping storage elements are pivoted into the product stream. These are preferably made of or coated with a low-contamination material. These elements provide some cushioning effect on the product flow, absorb energy and fill with polycrystalline silicon. After a partial filling of the plastic bag, they are emptied and removed again from the product stream. On the one hand, this is desirable for achieving the clock rate and, on the other hand, for further reducing the drop height.

Preferably, the polysilicon fragments are still detected by a camera before the dosing process, while the specific weight of the fragments is determined and further recognizes the surface texture of the fragments.

This allows an even more exact and a bag gentle packaging process.

Claims (10)

A method of packaging polycrystalline silicon which is in the form of debris, comprising the following steps - Providing polycrystalline silicon in a dosing system; - filling polycrystalline silicon from the metering system, by which fine fraction is separated by sieving, in a plastic bag arranged below the metering system;
during filling, determining the weight of the plastic bag with the filled polycrystalline silicon and terminating the filling operation after reaching a target weight;
wherein a drop height of the polycrystalline silicon from the dosing system into plastic bags is maintained at less than 450 mm by means of at least one clamping device during the entire filling operation. A method according to claim 1, wherein the dosing system comprises a coarse dosing coarse dosing chute and a fine detribution fine dosing chute. Method according to one of claims 1 or 2, wherein the clamping device is designed so that the plastic bag is compressed during filling, whereby the cross section of the plastic bag is first reduced and then released controlled. A method according to claim 3, wherein over the length of the plastic bag, several such clamping devices are provided, which are gradually released with increasing filling of the plastic bag. Method according to one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the polycrystalline silicon is filled via an inlet funnel into the plastic bag. Method according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein damping and storage elements are pivoted into a flow of polysilicon between the dosing system and plastic bag, fill with fragments and emptied after a certain degree of filling of the plastic bag and removed again. Method according to one of claims 1 to 6, wherein prior to the metering the polycrystalline silicon is detected by means of a camera, whereby a specific weight and a surface condition of the polycrystalline silicon are determined. Method according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein during the entire filling process, a drop height of the polycrystalline silicon from dosing into plastic bag by means of at least one clamping device is kept less than 300 mm. Clamping device for a device for packaging polycrystalline silicon in a plastic bag, which acts on the plastic bag so that it is compressed at a certain point laterally by a clamping, so that there reduces its cross-section, which clamping are solved at any time in whole or in part can, so that increases the cross section of the plastic bag at this point again. Method for packing polycrystalline silicon by filling in a plastic bag, using at least one clamping device which acts on the plastic bag so that it is compressed laterally by clamping at a certain point, so that there reduces the cross-section and polycrystalline silicon to be filled in vertical direction can reach only to this point of the plastic bag, which clamping can be completely or partially dissolved, so that the cross section of the plastic bag at this point increases again and the polycrystalline silicon from this point in the vertical direction in the plastic bag can continue to move down.