Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Mark A Buffa

Hamid Ghavami Kia

Terrence Wathen

Harry A Mitchell

Kenneth L Kaye

Todd D Bogumil

Sheila Farrokhalaee Kia

Michael F Zawisa

Joseph Clifford Simmer

David John Keyes

An integrated environmental barrier for protecting the receiver portion of a fuel cell stack health monitoring system. The stack health monitoring system includes a transmitting measurement module and an optical communication module having a receiver. Measurements indicating the health of the fuel cell stack are optically communicated between the transmitter and receiver through the environmentally protective barrier. The environmentally protective barrier is disposed between the measurement module and the optical communication module such that the environmental barrier isolates the optical communication module from the environment contained within the fuel cell stack. The environmental barrier comprises light blocking and light transmitting portions enabling system variation while ensuring signal integrity.

Integrated environmentally protective barrier with light blocking and light transmitting features to optically communicate between two electronic devices operating in different environments

Composite articles are prepared by a spray up operation. In a first step, a gel coat is applied onto a mold surface which has been optionally pretreated with a mold release coating. Next, a barrier coat is applied over the gel coat in the mold and thereafter a laminate formula is applied over the barrier coat. The laminate contains from 40-80% by weight paste and from 20-60% by weight reinforcing fibers. In a preferred embodiment, the paste comprises 90% or more by weight resin, up to 5% filler, and an initiator composition capable of initiating cure at a temperature of 50&#xb0; C. or lower. In a preferred embodiment, the multilayer composite has a thickness of about 15 mm or less, and is useful as an automobile body panel. The laminate preferably comprises a low shrink, low density glass fiber filled polyester resin. In a preferred embodiment, the paste of the laminate contains a dicyclopentadiene unsaturated polyester resin, polymeric hollow microspheres, and an initiator capable of initiating curing at room temperature or at temperature of 50&#xb0; C. or less.

Low shrink low density laminate formulation

A multilayer composite contains a gel coat layer, a laminate layer, and a barrier layer disposed between the gel coat and the laminate layer. The laminate contains from 40&#x2013;80% by weight paste and from 20&#x2013;60% by weight reinforcing fibers. The barrier coat also comprises a cured polyester resin, and contains reinforcing fibers shorter than those in the laminate layer. The barrier layer has sufficient flexibility to avoid cracking during demolding and handling. Preferably, the barrier layer exhibits an elongation at break of more than 1%, and more preferably about 2% or more. The resin of the barrier layer can contain up to about 25% by weight of the resin of an isophthalic acid based polyester resin. The composites can be made using an open tool molding process.

Barrier coat for open tool molding

A molding process that uses a textured interfacial layer to isolate the surface of a mold from the surface of a composite article produced with the mold. A solution is deposited on the mold surface to form the interfacial layer, whose surface opposite the mold is textured. The texture of the interfacial layer is then transferred to the surface of the composite article produced with the mold. After demolding, the interfacial layer adheres to the article as a protective coating, but can be readily removed from the article to expose an underlying textured surface of the article.

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Utica, MI, United States of America

Mark A Buffa