Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Nok Corporation

Kentaro Ishida

Shuhei Goto

Yu Tomana

Seiji Sugiura

Narutoshi Sugita

Tetsuya Nakamura

Hiroyuki Tanaka

Satoshi Oyama

Kenji Nagumo

Eri Terada

Masaharu Suzuki

Siguang Xu

Liang Xi

Xi Yang

Hiroshi Morikawa

Masaaki Sakano

Suguru Ohmori

Masahiro Matsutani

Yutaka Ebato

Yoshihito Kimura

Akihito Giga

Richard Blakeley

Yosuke Nishida

Tadashi Nishiyama

Yukihito Tanaka

Takeshi Ushio

Tsuyoshi Kobayashi

Takuro Okubo

Akihiro Matsui

Yuji Asano

Kenji Sasaki

Masahiro Fukuta

Keisuke Suda

Keisuke Ando

Matthew J Beutel

Kenichi Murakami

Shuji Sato

Masaaki Nanaumi

Naoki Yamano

Kimiharu Mizusaki

Satoru Terada

Yuta Ikeda

Go Morimoto

Joseph Nicholas Lovria

Yoshihiro Nakanishi

Kazuo Nunokawa

Hayato Kaji

Takaaki Shikano

Takeshi Matsubara

Masami Kurimoto

Yusuke Okabe

Kohei Yoshida

Jeffrey D Williams

Takahiro Fukuchi

Tatsuru Shishido

Takeaki Isobe

Kento Suzuki

Nanaumi Masaaki

A passage bead seal of a fuel cell joint separator includes a straight portion and curved portions. An oxygen-containing gas bridge section connecting the inside and the outside of a portion surrounded by a passage bead seal includes inner tunnels and outer tunnels coupled to an inner side wall and an outer side wall of a straight portion, and protruding in a separator thickness direction. The tunnel height is determined to be smaller than the bead seal height by not less than a predetermined value in a manner that a line pressure applied by a compression load to a front end surface of the straight portion becomes the same as a line pressure applied by the compression load to a front end surface of the curved portion.

Fuel cell separator and power generation cell

A separator assembly used for a fuel cell includes one pair of metal separators joined together and including a bead seal section including one pair of seal bead portions projecting in opposite directions respectively, an elastic body disposed in the bead seal section, and a first communication hole which extends through the separator assembly in a thickness direction of the separator assembly and which allows a reaction gas or a coolant to flow through the separator assembly. The bead seal section is disposed along an outer periphery of the separator assembly and along a shape of the first communication hole. The elastic body of a predetermined length is disposed in the bead seal section.

Separator assembly used for fuel cell

A fuel cell joint separator includes a passage bead and an outer bead. In a dual seal section where the passage bead and the outer bead extend next to each other, a ridge protruding from one surface of a metal separator is formed integrally with the metal separator, between the passage bead and the outer bead. The height of the ridge is smaller than the height of the bead seal compressed by the tightening load. A joining line is provided between the outer bead and the ridge.

Fuel cell joint separator and fuel cell

An oxygen-containing gas flow field and an inner bead (or a bead seal) are formed on one surface of a first metal separator, and a coolant flow field as a passage of a coolant is formed on the other surface of the first metal separator. Further, a coolant supply passage and a coolant discharge passage extend through the first metal separator in a separator thickness direction. An in-bead channel as a passage of the coolant is formed by a recess on the back side of the inner bead. A narrowed segment is provided in a part of the in-bead channel. The channel cross sectional area of the narrowed segment is smaller than those of other segments.

Fuel cell metal separator and fuel cell

A plurality of anode wavy portions provided in an anode separator of a fuel cell have wavy patterns in the same phase, and are arranged in an amplitude direction of the anode wavy portions at a first pitch. A plurality of cathode wavy portions provided in a cathode separator have wavy patterns in the same phase but in reverse phase with respect to the anode wavy portions, and are arranged in an amplitude direction of the cathode wavy portions at a second pitch. The first pitch and the second pitch have different sizes.

Fuel cell

Oxygen-containing gas discharge passages are provided in a first metal separator of a fuel cell of a fuel cell stack. The oxygen-containing gas discharge passages include an upper oxygen-containing gas discharge passages and a lower oxygen-containing gas discharge passage. In the first metal separator, a central position at the center between the upper oxygen-containing gas discharge passage and the lower oxygen-containing gas discharge passage is positioned below the center of an oxygen-containing gas flow field in the gravity direction.

Fuel cell and fuel cell stack

A frame equipped membrane electrode assembly or a frame equipped MEA of a fuel cell includes a membrane electrode assembly or an MEA and a frame member provided on an outer peripheral portion of the MEA. A method of producing the frame equipped MEA includes a first joining step of joining a first resin frame film and a second resin frame film together in a thickness direction to form a film joint body, a welding step of spot welding a first resin sheet to a portion of the first resin frame film facing a second inlet buffer when the fuel cell is formed, to form the frame member, and a second joining step of joining the frame member to the outer peripheral portion of the MEA.

Method of producing frame equipped membrane electrode assembly, the frame equipped membrane electrode and fuel cell

A power generation cell (fuel cell) includes a membrane electrode assembly and first and second metallic separators arranged respectively on opposite sides of the membrane electrode assembly. An oxygen containing gas supply passage, a communication passage bead section (bead seal) that surrounds the oxygen containing gas supply passage, and a bridge section are disposed on the first metallic separator. At a location where the bridge section is disposed, the width of a root section of the communication passage bead section is greater than the width of the root section of the communication passage bead section at other locations thereof.

Fuel cell and metallic separator with varied bead seal width and angle

Systems and methods including a header flange to evenly distribute contact pressure across seals include, in some aspects, a plate including a bead and a flange edge. The bead includes a bead-side and a bead-corner. The flange edge defines an aperture through the plate. The flange edge also includes a first edge-portion proximate the bead-side and a second edge-portion proximate the bead-corner. The bead-side and the first edge-portion define a first edge-distance therebetween. The bead-corner and the second edge-portion define a second edge-distance therebetween. The second edge-distance is greater than the first edge-distance.

Header flange to evenly distribute contact pressure across seals

A fuel gas supply passage is provided at a central position of one side of opposing sides of a separator. A fuel gas supply passage is provided close to a fuel gas flow field in comparison with any of a plurality of fluid passages provided along the one side. An identification mark of the separator is provided between the fuel gas supply passage and an outer peripheral end of the separator.

Fuel cell separator, fuel cell joint separator, and power generation cell

A fluid passage for supplying or discharging fluid extends through a metal separator in a separator thickness direction, and a bead seal configured to prevent leakage of the fluid protrudes from the metal separator. A folded portion is formed in an outer marginal portion of the metal separator or in an inner marginal portion of the fluid passage, and the folded portion is bent or curved in a direction opposite to the protruding direction of the bead seal.

Fuel cell metal separator, method of producing the fuel cell metal separator, and power generation cell

A first metal separator of a power generation cell includes an oxygen-containing gas flow field extending along an electrode surface of a membrane electrode assembly, an oxygen-containing gas supply passage connected to the oxygen-containing gas flow field and extending through the first metal separator in a separator thickness direction, and a passage bead formed around the oxygen-containing gas supply passage and protruding in the separator thickness direction. A water drainage channel configured to connect an inner space of the passage bead with the oxygen-containing gas supply passage is provided at a lower portion of the passage bead.

Power generation cell

A fuel cell includes an MEA, a first separator, and a second separator. A frame member is provided around an outer peripheral portion of an MEA, and held between the first separator and the second separator. The height of an oxygen-containing gas flow field formed by the second separator, from the MEA is larger than the height of a fuel gas flow field formed by the first separator, from the MEA. The central position of the MEA in the thickness direction and the central position of the frame member outer peripheral portion of the frame member in the thickness direction are offset from each other.

A power generation cell or a fuel cell includes an MEA, a first separator, and a second separator. A frame member is provided on an outer peripheral portion of the MEA. The frame member includes a frame member inner peripheral portion and a frame member outer peripheral portion held between the first separator and the second separator. The central position of a power generation area of the MEA in the thickness direction and the central position of the frame member outer peripheral portion in the thickness direction are offset from each other. Further, a first seal line of the first separator and a second seal line of the second separator, sealing the frame member outer peripheral portion, are non-symmetrical with each other.

A first metal separator of a power generation cell includes an oxygen-containing gas supply passage extending through the first metal separator in a separator thickness direction, a passage bead formed around the oxygen-containing gas supply passage, and a plurality of tunnels protruding from a side wall of the passage bead and expanded in the separator thickness direction. The plurality of tunnels have the same shape in cross section of a root connected to the passage bead.

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Wako, Japan

Kentaro Ishida