Photo voltaic Energy World has devoted its March 2024 protection to set up suggestions for photo voltaic contractors massive and small. You may learn the remainder of our Q&As within the journal and on-line right here.
For perception into the “hand-held software” section, SPW talked with Mark Kelly, senior product supervisor at Milwaukee Instrument, to be taught extra concerning the numerous instruments used within the set up of photo voltaic tasks, from residential rooftop arrays on as much as utility-scale services with thousands and thousands of bolts.
Milwaukee not too long ago launched a brand new torque influence wrench developed with enter from utility-scale photo voltaic installers. What advantages does it deliver?
Credit score: Milwaukee Instrument
We acquired numerous requests from totally different trades to have an effect wrench the place you would magically inform it the torque and it will give that. We realized fairly shortly that photo voltaic has essentially the most to realize from a product like that with the quantity of wasted time on a jobsite going round and clicking bolts with a mechanical click on wrench. We went out to design a product that was sturdy and highly effective but in addition might management its torque output, with the hopes that they might ultimately change the two-step course of and get the repeatability and accuracy they’re on the lookout for.
With most installers at present, it’s a guess on the torque, there’s no management. Plenty of prospects will say they inform their guys to rely to 2 or set the RPM decrease, and that stops it from over torquing. However then it takes 10 seconds to do the applying. There wasn’t a great way to manage torque with an influence. There are attachments that may restrict your torque output like torque sticks. However now you’ve this lengthy extension and it’s onerous to get it the place you need it and it’s not providing you with a torque worth. It’s simply attempting to get you from overclicking, however you’ll be able to nonetheless under-torque. Equipment aren’t actually doing the trick, so lots of people needed one thing that might simply be programmed and able to go.
How have Milwaukee’s instruments for photo voltaic installers developed through the years?
Credit score: Milwaukee Instrument
“Linked merchandise” is an effective alternative. ONE KEY has been round virtually 10 years as a customization, administration and reporting platform. The way in which you do numerous reporting at present is to only manually discuss it, write it down on pen and paper. With our impacts, each set off pull is recorded so that you get a date and time the mode was set in, and you may present that to your buyer to indicate them the additional effort you went via to manage torque in your jobsite vs. we wrote down what we did at present. It provides extra credibility to what you’re doing.
How do the torque instruments used on rooftop/residential photo voltaic tasks differ from these used on utility-scale?
Most of our instruments are designed to cross-trades. However what we’ve seen is that numerous residential photo voltaic installers gravitate towards the smaller M12-type merchandise. Once you’re on residential or industrial rooftop tasks, your fastener sizes are smaller, you’re coping with aluminum vs. metal, your software choice is screwdrivers and drills. Our on a utility web site, you’re placing in bigger bolts, bigger diameter bolts, so that you’re utilizing influence wrenches. In utility, there’s a giant want for our merchandise for metalworking and concrete, perhaps chopping piles to top and drilling new holes into steel piles.
