Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Satoshi Ohnuma

Hirokazu Otsubo

Nobuhira Abe

Motohiro Mizuno

Nobuyuki Ogami

Yuichi Itoh

Takenori Aiyama

Riki Otsuka

There are disclosed a tank having a structure which achieves both a burst strength and a fatigue strength, and a manufacturing method of the tank. In order to realize this, in a tank comprising a liner, and an FRP layer including a hoop layer and a helical layer formed by winding fibers around the outer periphery of the liner, at least an innermost helical layer is formed as a smooth helical layer. When the smooth helical layer, i.e., a helical layer which does not have any unevenness or which has only little unevenness is formed, the unevenness can be prevented from being transferred to the hoop layer adjacent to the helical layer. When structural bends (undulations) of the fibers of the hoop layer are suppressed, a fatigue strength of the fibers themselves can be enhanced.

Tank and manufacturing method thereof

A metal separator defines a fluid passage. The fluid passage defines a reactant gas passage formed at a first, MEA-opposing surface of the metal separator, a coolant passage formed at a second, opposite surface of the metal separator, a reactant gas manifold fluidly connected to the reactant gas passage and a coolant manifold fluidly connected to the coolant passage. The metal separator includes a rib formed thereon so as to surround a portion of the metal separator where the fluid passage is formed. The rib is adapted to contact a metal separator of an adjacent fuel cell to construct a seal for a fluid passage surrounded by the rib. A plurality of seal lines where each seal line includes each rib may be provided. By virtue of the presence of the rib, a gasket provided in a fuel cell of comparison does not need to be provided.

Self-sealing fuel cell separator

A fuel cell manufacturing method is provided by which an unbroken strip of sheet material is sent through a molding process, an MEA assembly process and a modularization process, and is separated into individual modules in a batch process. In the molding process, separators are sequentially molded on the strip of sheet material, and a separator strip is produced in which the separators are connected together by runners. In the MEA assembly process and the modularization process, MEAs are sequentially assembled on the separator strip in which a series of the separators are connected together by the runners, and a module strip is produced in which a series of the modules are connected together by the runners. In the batch process, the series of modules is separated into the individual modules by cutting and removing the runners from the module strip.

Fuel cell manufacturing method and system

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Toyota, Japan

Satoshi Ohnuma