Methods and apparatuses for cutting of thin film solar cells

An apparatus for cutting a web with a first face, a second face opposite the first face and offset from the first face by a nominal thickness t, the apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of cutter rollers, each cutter roller including a substantially cylindrical cutter-web contact surface, a first side, and a second side, wherein the cutter-web contact surface intersects the first side to form a first edge;
• a cutter arbor, wherein each cutter roller is coupled with the cutter arbor such that the cutter-web contact surfaces are coaxial with each other;
• a plurality of support rollers, each support roller including a substantially cylindrical support-web contact surface, a third side, and a fourth side, wherein the support-web contact surface intersects the third side to form a third edge, wherein the third edge is rounded with a third radius;
• a support arbor, wherein each support roller is coupled with the support arbor such that the support-web contact surfaces are coaxial with each other, wherein center axes of the cutter-web contact surfaces and the support-web contact surfaces are parallel and offset such that the web may be fed between the cutter arbor and the support arbor with the first face contacting the cutter-web contact surfaces and the second face of the web contacting the support-web contact surfaces, and wherein the support rollers and the cutter rollers are axially spaced such that the support rollers and the cutter rollers interleave in a non-interfering manner when the support arbor and the cutter arbor are configured such that the offset is less than half the sum of the largest diameter of the support rollers and the largest diameter of the cutter rollers, wherein:
• the first sides are offset from the third sides by first gaps,
• the minimum separation between the first edge and the third edge associated with each first gap is greater than t,
• the cutter-web contact surface intersects the second side to form a second edge,
• the support-web contact surface intersects the fourth side to form a fourth edge,
• the second edge is rounded with a second radius,
• the fourth edge is rounded with a fourth radius,
• the first edge is rounded with a first radius substantially smaller than the third radius, and
• the second radius and the fourth radius are larger than the third radius.