While at the beginning of our prototyping phase we were focused on developing a stack with high performance regarding round trip efficiency, we now have to turn the spotlight also on the requirements of mass production. This involves several challenges:
- Materials must be chosen that are both cheap and high quality. Therefore, the market needs to be screened, and several samples need to be tested in our lab to be able to select the best products available.
- The customized parts of the stack like frames, distribution-plates or endplates must be produced in a way that is suitable for mass production. For this reason, we are working on producing these parts by injection molding, which is the cheapest and most efficient way of production for a large number of pieces.
- The stacking process needs to be adapted. We are working on simplifying the placing of the stack components during stacking by introducing fixing rods and improving fixing structures in the frames.
All these steps bring us closer to a stack that is suitable for mass production.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
This work was supported by the project: IPCEI_IE_FLOW_BESS_012021_2. phase