Eastman-kodak Company

Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Robert R Quiel

Douglas S Finnicum

Andrew Paul Nowak

Richard H Blunk

Mark Cameron Zaretsky

Bradley M Houghtaling

Scott C Moose

Daniel William Gorkiewicz

Daniel C Lioy

David A Wakefield

Paul D Nicotera

Alain E Gros

Fernando Ramos, Jr

Felipe M Joos

Christophe Georges Levarlet

An electrode plate is disclosed. The electrode plate includes a plate having an active area, a feed region in fluid communication with the active region, and a tunnel region in fluid communication with the feed region and a manifold region, an ultralyophobic coating on one or more of at least a portion of the tunnel region, at least a portion of the feed region, and an interface between the tunnel region and the manifold region. Fuel cells using the electrode plate and methods of making electrode plates are also described.

Stable ultralyophobic coating for PEMFC bipolar plate water management

Methods of making a substantially crack-free electrode layer are described. The methods include depositing an electrode ink on a substrate; placing a solid polymer film on a surface of the wet electrode ink; drying the electrode ink; and removing the solid polymer film from the surface of the dry electrode ink to form the substantially crack-free electrode layer on the substrate.

Wet lamination process for reducing mud cracking in fuel cell components

A coating method and apparatus are taught for coating a liquid composition onto a surface of a moving web. A coating hopper for delivering the liquid composition to the surface of the moving web is provided with a rotatable backing roller. The moving web is wrapped around a portion of the rotatable backing roller with the rotatable backing roller supporting the moving web through a dynamic wetting line. The rotatable backing roller includes a plurality of circumferential grooves therein at a groove pitch of at least two per millimeter. An electrostatic field generated across the gap between the moving web and the liquid composition immediately prior to the dynamic wetting line. The method and apparatus permit either coating at a higher speed or higher viscosity than may be achieved in the prior art, or greatly reduced groove line nonuniformity at a given coating speed and viscosity.

System for coating using a grooved backing roller and electrostatic assist

A method of bead coating a liquid composition onto the surface of a moving web is taught which provides uniform coatings over a wider range of operating parameters including new coating windows. In addition, the bead coating method typically demonstrates a reduction in coating sensitivity to vacuum pressure noise below the coating bead. The method comprises the steps of forming a bottom layer on a slide surface of a slide bead coating apparatus with a pseudoplastic liquid composition having a viscosity between 8 and 200 centipoises at a shear rate of 100 sec and a viscosity below 10 centipoises at a shear rate of 100,000 sec ; forming at least one other liquid coating layer above the bottom layer on the slide surface of the slide bead coating apparatus; establishing a coating bead between a lip of the slide bead coating apparatus and the moving web supported on a back-up roller, generating an electrostatic field in an air gap between the coating bead and the moving web just prior to a dynamic wetting line by creating a potential difference across the air gap of between about 300 and about 2000 volts.

Slide bead coating method

The invention aims to optimize a given parameter of a process of coating a support with a liquid composition. The device comprises: a) means (9, 10) for varying the parameter according to a predetermined profile; b) first detection means (11) for producing a first density profile for the support (6) across the width of the support, as the parameter varies; c) second detection means (13) for producing a second density profile for the support (6) parallel to the longitudinal axis, as the parameter varies; and d) means (15, 10) for determining a range of values for the said parameter for which the first and second profiles are satisfactory.

Device and method for optimizing a given parameter in a process of

Growing community of inventors

Penfield, NY, United States of America

Robert R Quiel