Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Nobuya Inoue

Nobuyoshi Nishizawa

Masahiro Ide

Akio Inoue

Masao Kumeta

Hideki Goto

Osamu Takehara

One or more defective fuel cells in fuel cell stacks are shortcircuited by a process comprising the steps of making plural holes in bipolar plates adjacent to the defective cell from at least one end of their process gas channels, inserting corrosion-resisting conductive wire rods into resultant holes to shortcircuit between the bipolar plates, and then closing the process gas channels of the bipolar plates at both ends with a heat-resisting sealing material to stop the supply the process gases to the defective cells.

Method for processing defective fuel cells in fuel cell stacks

A method for assembling fuel cell stack comprises the steps of alternately stacking the prescribed number of fuel cells and bipolar plates to form a plurality of substacks, arranging the laid substacks on a supporting base so that the central axes of the substacks parallel to the stacking direction of the fuel cell stack are on a horizontal straight line to form a complete fuel cell stack, tying up the fuel cell stack to apply a predetermined compressive load to the fuel cell components, making the fuel cell stack vertical, and then removing said supporting base from the fuel cell stack. The supporting base on which a plurality of fuel cell substacks is provided at its both end with a pair of side plates, and a pressure plate is slidably arranged on the base and connected to driving means.

Method and device for assembling a fuel cell stack

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Moriguchi, Japan

Nobuya Inoue