Wikipedia
Manz AG (formerly Manz Automation) is a German multinational engineering company active in the fields of automation, laser processesing, vacuum coating, printing, metrology, wet chemistry and roll-to-roll processing. These technologies are applied in the three strategic business units "Electronics", "Solar" and "Energy Storage".
Headquartered in Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg, the company has additional production centres in Tübingen, Schwäbisch Hall and Karlstein am Main as well as international manufacturing sites in Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, China and Taiwan. There are additional sales and service branches in the USA, South Korea and India.
Manz has developed a significant presence in the solar photovoltaic industry. Its activities in this sector focus on the development and supply of integrated systems for the production of PERC solar cells from crystalline silicon wafers and for thin-film solar cells. In 2010 the company established a partnership with Würth Solar (part of the Würth industrial group) for the exclusive licensing of its CIGS solar cell production technology. After the acquisition of the CIGS modules innovation line of Würth Solar in January 2012, technology licenses were also transferred to the company on an unrestricted basis. In September 2012, Manz presented a CIGS solar module, which was produced on a mass production line and has a 14.6 percent efficiency on total module area and 15.9 percent on aperture area (one in the industry unequaled efficiency). In April 2015, Manz surpassed these numbers again and presented an impressive new efficiency world record for CIGS thin-film solar modules on mass production line with a module efficiency of 16 percent.
The other major business areas of Manz are the supply of systems for the production of flat panel displays and touch panels, a market it first entered in 1994 as well as the supply of systems for the production of lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells on an industrial scale.