Fabrication of micro-channel arrays on thin stainless steel sheets for proton exchange membrane fuel cells using micro-stamping technology

Abstract

Bipolar plates are one of the crucial components of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Because of the expensive production costs of traditional graphite bipolar plates, which require a few millimeters thickness over the space, the resulting metal bipolar plate reduces the cost, and the thickness can be reduced to the micron range. This study explored the application of micro-stamping technology to produce thin metal bipolar plates with the relevant process parameters. In this study, the channel design was 0.8 ×0.75 mm for the use of a rigid punch on a 50-μm-thick stainless steel sheet (SUS 304) for micro-channel stamping processes. The finite element method and the experimental results were used to analyze the main parameters of the micro-stamping process. The traditional material model and the scale factor modified material model were used for simulation. The experimental results verified that the modified material model is more realistic for products and has superior similarity because the punch load is relatively small. This study used updated Lagrangian formulation concept to establish an elastic–plastic deformation finite element analysis model and scale factor to modify the calculation to effectively simulate the micro-stamping process for metal bipolar plates.