Development and realsisation of a mobile and modular jig for assembly and qualification of Protarget’s medium scale parabolic trough collector PT950

The PT950 assembly line introduces an industrialized, jig-based manufacturing concept for scalable production of parabolic trough collector modules with consistently high quality for global solar thermal applications.

A key challenge in solar thermal deployment is achieving cost-efficient and reproducible collector manufacturing. This project addresses this through a transportable precision alignment jig system that ensures highly repeatable positioning of critical components. 

Compared to manual alignment methods, the optimized process significantly increases productivity while reducing labour demand. 

This improvement directly reduces collector field installation costs and contributes to lowering the levelized cost of solar thermal heat in large-scale applications.

A key innovation of the system is the ability to rapidly qualify locally recruited semi-skilled workers for collector manufacturing. This significantly lowers deployment barriers in emerging solar thermal markets and strengthens regional value creation.

The solution contributes to:
• reduced manufacturing costs
• increased production scalability
• improved optical alignment consistency
• faster field deployment
• improved project bankability
• enhanced competitiveness of solar process heat applications

Overall, the approach represents an important step toward industrialized global manufacturing of solar thermal collectors. By reducing complexity and enabling scalable production with locally trained labour, it directly supports the transition from fossil-based industrial heat systems to renewable solar heating solutions.