Nissan Motor Company Limited

Takeharu Kuramochi

Masahiro Omata

Yoshiki Muto

Masanori Iwamoto

Masahiko Katsu

Hideto Kanafusa

Akira Fujiki

Takayuki Hirao

Hiroshi Saitou

Yukihiro Maekawa

Haruhiko Suzuki

Takeshi Shimizu

Sadao Miki

A fuel cell is manufactured using a polymer electrolyte membrane (). A catalyst layer () is formed at fixed intervals on the surface of the strip-form polymer electrolyte membrane () in the lengthwise direction thereof, and conveyance holes () are formed in series at fixed intervals on the two side portions thereof. By rotating a conveyance roller () comprising on its outer periphery projections which engage with the holes (), the polymer electrolyte membrane () is fed from a reel (). A GDL () and a separator () are adhered to the fed polymer electrolyte membrane () at a predetermined processing timing based on the rotation speed of the conveyance roller (), and thus the fuel cell is manufactured efficiently while the GDL () and separator () are laminated onto the catalyst layer () accurately.

Manufacture of fuel cell

Separators (A,B,) and membrane-electrode assemblies () of a fuel cell stack () are alternately stacked in a guide box (). The separators (A,B,) each have groove-like gas paths (A,B). Powder of an adhesive agent () is adhered in advance to the surfaces of the separators (A,B,), except the gas paths (A,B), through photosensitive drums (A,B) to which the powder is adsorbed in a given pattern. The separators (A,B,) and the membrane-electrode assemblies (), stacked in the guide box (), are heated and compressed by a press () and heaters (C) to obtain a unitized fuel cell stack ().

Fuel cell and production of fuel cell stack

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Takeharu Kuramochi