19 Fraunhofer institutes are working together on a more cost-effective series production of bipolar plates. The Fraunhofer IPT is addressing the shaping of bipolar half shells.
A follow-on composite tool for the discrete manufacturing of metallic bipolar plates: the Fraunhofer IPT wants to expand it to include various functions.
Fraunhofer IPT
In the H2GO research project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT is seeking to further develop two different processes for shaping bipolar half shells: on the one hand, discrete forming, in which an active part in the follow-on composite tool stamps a fuel cell design onto a metal sheet; and on the other hand, roll-to-roll forming, in which the fuel cell design is applied to a metal foil using an embossing roller.
In the follow-on composite tool, a heating module is integrated in addition to the existing punching and forming units, which makes the sheet material easier to form. To ensure that the tight tolerance requirements for bipolar plates are met even at high volumes, the team is developing an inline quality inspection system for integration into the follow-on composite tool. This should enable the early detection of production defects and significantly reduce scrap rates. The detection of disturbances, such as tool wear, is also one of the research priorities.
Improvements for the Roll-to-Roll Machine
For the roll-to-roll machine, the Fraunhofer IPT evaluates the geometric fidelity and structural accuracy of bipolar plate halves with different process parameters. Additional sensors are integrated into the machine on the embossing rollers for this purpose. These provide information about deformations on the embossing rollers. The measured values are compared and validated in simulations to improve and simplify the design of the machine system. Additional measurement technology is used to precisely control the roll gap between the two embossing rollers, thus optimizing the accuracy of the resulting bipolar plates.
In both manufacturing processes, a bipolar plate half passes through numerous individual processes. In addition to the actual shaping, these include cleaning, the application of a seal and laser processing. In order to be able to track the path through the process chain, each workpiece receives a data matrix code in the first process step, which is read and recorded in subsequent processes. The data should make it possible to increase production efficiency and product quality.
This is a partly automated translation of this german article.
