Nissan Motor Company Limited

Hideto Kanafusa

Kazuhiro Mitamura

Masaaki Yoshitome

Kazuto Ueno

Satoru Majima

Takashi Haraoka

Masahiro Omata

Yoshiki Muto

Takeharu Kuramochi

Masanori Iwamoto

Masahiko Katsu

Hajime Minagawa

Shinji Ooe

Tomoyuki Hirota

Tomoaki Watari

A fuel cell is manufactured using a polymer electrolyte membrane (). A catalyst layer () is formed at fixed intervals on the surface of the strip-form polymer electrolyte membrane () in the lengthwise direction thereof, and conveyance holes () are formed in series at fixed intervals on the two side portions thereof. By rotating a conveyance roller () comprising on its outer periphery projections which engage with the holes (), the polymer electrolyte membrane () is fed from a reel (). A GDL () and a separator () are adhered to the fed polymer electrolyte membrane () at a predetermined processing timing based on the rotation speed of the conveyance roller (), and thus the fuel cell is manufactured efficiently while the GDL () and separator () are laminated onto the catalyst layer () accurately.

Manufacture of fuel cell

A preform having edges overlapped and jointed, two outer members for forming outer surfaces of a hydroformed product, and reinforcement members for forming reinforcement ribs that divide a hollow cross section of the hydroformed product, including a joint formed by, when more than three sheet materials for forming the outer members and the reinforcement members are overlapped together, welding a first sheet material on a surface of the overlapped sheet materials to a second sheet material positioned inside the first sheet material, and a space disposed and aligned with a joint plane between the second sheet material and a third sheet material located inside the second sheet material during the welding process.

Preform, hydroforming method, and hydroformed product

A preform with edges overlapped and jointed each other and first and second outer members for forming outer surfaces of a hydroformed product, and reinforcement members that are jointed to the first and second outer members to form reinforcement ribs that divide a hollow cross section of the outer surfaces, the reinforcement members having dimensions capable of suppressing elongation in a tensile direction due to a tensile force that develops during hydroforming.

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Yokohama, Japan

Hideto Kanafusa