Effect of manufacturing processes on formability and surface topography of proton exchange membrane fuel cell metallic bipolar plates

Contact resistance characteristics of coated metallic bipolar plates for PEM fuel cells – investigations on the effect of manufacturing

“…In forming of bipolar plates using hydroforming and stamping processes, pre-determined process parameters from previous studies were 40 MPa hydroforming pressure with 1 MPa/s rate in hydroforming, and 200 kN stamping force with 1 mm/s punch speed [51,62]. Necessary sheet sizes for forming process were 70 Â 70 mm in stamping and 150 Â 150 mm in hydroforming while formed (micro-channeled) areas were limited to 40 Â 40 mm in both processes.…”

Microforming Processes

“…The study, which is aimed at addressing the formability and surface topography issues of the metallic bipolar plates fabricated by stamping and hydroforming schematically shown in Fig. 4.16b, has been conducted by Mahabunphachai et al [47]. It is concluded that the hydroforming pressure and the rate of applying pressure have a significant effect on formability.…”

Effect of manufacturing conditions on the corrosion resistance behavior of metallic bipolar plates in proton exchange membrane fuel cells

“…For stamping, a blank sample is compressed between upper and lower dies to produce the channels. Detailed information and description of these processes and equipment were reported in a recent study [17]. For hydroforming, 20 and 40 MPa pressure levels and 1 MPa s −1 pressure rate were used in the experiments whereas force levels of 100 and 200 kN and 1 mm s −1 punch speed were used in the stamping process.…”