Carbon Coatings for Bipolar Plates and Technology Roadmaps Toward Mass Production
(Room Room 104-B)
29 Apr 19
2:40 PM
-
3:00 PM
Tracks:
Protective, Tribological and Decorative Coatings
PEM-type fuel cell technology is explored on global scale and is meanwhile on the verge of pilot production for automotive applications. One of the main challenges is to provide a highly conductive anti-corrosion coating on the stainless steel bipolar plates, at very high output and very low costs. IHI Hauzer Techno Coating is using its 30-year experience in carbon-based PVD coatings for the automotive industry and has developed a coating stack that is demonstrating stable ICR values below 2 mOhm*cm2 in ex-situ tests at both anodic (0V) and cathodic (0.8V) conditions. In addition, improving the adhesion film material greatly improves high voltage performance at 1.4V. High volume coating solutions are based on Hauzer’s inline PVD equipment technology. Single system productivity is depending on configuration, but can be well over 10 million bipolar plates per year at a cost level of far below 1 EUR per plate. Equipment technology, production costs, and different coating materials will be explained in more detail, including more results on coating performance, both ex-situ as well as in-situ.