JA Solar announced on July 6th its standard modules successfully passed the Class A fire test in accordance with UL1703 standard for Type 1 modules. During the test, all six sets of BOM used for JA Solar's type-1 modules passed the UL Class A fire test conducted by Intertek, making JA Solar the first company mass producing PV modules in China to pass the test.
In recent years, as the installation of solar electricity generation has been rapidly grown worldwide at a unprecedented pace, the standard and criteria for the reliability certification of PV modules have been constantly updated and expanded in order to meet the increasing demand for PV products with better quality and higher reliability from the end user of solar electricity, as well as the more stringent safety, environment, and hazard regulations for PV installations by legislatures and governments at various levels.
The Class A fire test for Type 1 PV modules set forth by UL-1703 requires the tested module to endure direct torch burning for more than 10 minutes from gas flame (the temperature of flame is 760±28oC, with wind speed at 5.4±0.2m/s, allowed flame spreading distance is under 1.82 meters). The criteria of this Class A test is far stricter than that of the previously commonly accepted Class C standard, which only requires the tested PV module to take 4 minutes of direct burning (with the flame temperature at 704±28oC, the wind speed at 5.4±0.2m/s and allowed flame spreading distance at under 3.9 meters). It turned out that, during the Class A test conducted at Intertek, the JA Solar's Type-1 modules subjected to the test not only withstood the inferno-like heat without becoming self-flammable; the flame torch was not even able to burn through the PV panel.
The fact that JA Solar's Type-1 modules passed the UL1703 Class A test once again demonstrates the long-term commitment of JA Solar to provide our customers with high-performance and reliable PV products, and to meet the ever increasing demand for clean energy through technological innovation and performance improvement.