Heliostat sub-assembly

A heliostat sub-assembly, comprising:

• a concave mirror;
• a plurality of risers bonded at predetermined spaced intervals to a rear face of the concave mirror, each riser having a bonding pad and a riser stem extending from the bonding pad;
• and
• a supporting structure comprising a plurality of spaced ribs interconnected by at least one transverse beam, a spacing between the spaced ribs corresponding to the spaced intervals between the risers, and the spaced ribs being clinched to the riser stems to hold the concave mirror in position;
• wherein each spaced rib of the plurality of spaced ribs has a U-shaped profile terminating in outwardly flanged ends;
• and
• wherein the riser stems are coupled to the bonding pads via multi-axial joint assemblies to enable limited multi-pivotal movement of the stems relative to the bonding pads to facilitate alignment of faces of the stems with faces of the spaced ribs defined by webs, and relative expansion and contraction of the concave mirror and supporting structure, an overlap between the riser stems and the webs being sufficient to accommodate clinching with variations in curvature of a glass sheet.

A heliostat sub-assembly, comprising:

• a concave mirror;
• a plurality of risers bonded at predetermined spaced intervals to a rear face of the concave mirror, each riser having a bonding pad and a riser stem extending from the bonding pad;
• and
• a supporting structure comprising a plurality of spaced ribs interconnected by at least one transverse beam, a spacing between the spaced ribs corresponding to the spaced intervals between the risers, and the spaced ribs being clinched to the riser stems to hold the concave mirror in position;
• wherein each spaced rib of the plurality of spaced ribs has a U-shaped profile terminating in outwardly flanged ends;
• and
• wherein the at least one transverse beam is a Z-beam with base flanges clinched to the outwardly flanged ends of the spaced ribs.