JP2019185872A - Separator transfer method - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a separator transfer method that can prevent surface contamination of the separator surface and improve productivity.SOLUTION: A separator transfer method according to an embodiment is a transfer method of a separator 10 having a plurality of manifold holes 12 formed through the opposing end portions to form a manifold for a reaction gas and/or a cooling medium, includes a step of bending a tray 20 having a plurality of pins 21 respectively disposed at positions corresponding to the plurality of manifold holes 12 and inserting the pins 21 into the manifold holes 12, and a step of releasing the bending of the tray 20, bringing the plurality of pins 21 into contact with outer edge portions 13 of the manifold holes 12, and supporting and transferring the separator 10 by the tray 20 while the separator 10 is pulled.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for transporting a separator for a fuel cell.

  In general, a fuel cell includes a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) in which an electrolyte membrane and a pair of electrodes arranged on both sides of the electrolyte membrane are joined, and a pair of separators that sandwich the membrane electrode assembly. It is used in a configuration of a fuel cell stack in which a plurality of unit cells are provided.

  The fuel cell manufacturing process includes a separator processing process, a single cell assembly process, and a process of stacking a plurality of single cells to form a stack. In these steps, there is a step of conveying a flat separator. Since the separator is manufactured by processing a thin base material, warping and bending remain, and the separator may be deformed or detached when transported.

  As a technique for conveying such a separator, there is a technique disclosed in Patent Document 1. In Patent Document 1, gripping portions are formed at opposite ends of the separator. These gripping portions are gripped by the gripping member and pulled outward. The separator is conveyed while being pulled.

  Moreover, there exists a technique currently disclosed by patent document 2 as a technique which conveys a flat plate. Patent Document 2 discloses a carrier for transporting a substrate such as a printed wiring board. This carrier for board | substrate conveyance has the resin film with the adhesion layer provided with the adhesion layer which adheres to the lower surface of a board | substrate so that peeling was possible, and a support body. The surface opposite to the surface having the adhesive layer of the resin film with the adhesive layer is laminated on the surface of the support, and the resin film with the adhesive layer is detachably fixed to the support.

JP2015-118810A JP 2012-178551 A

  In patent document 1, in order to hold | grip a separator, it is necessary to provide a holding part in the edge part of a separator. Since the gripping part is unnecessary as a product, there is a problem that a process for removing the gripping part later is required and the productivity of the product is lowered. Further, when the gripping portion is not removed, the physique of the fuel cell stack becomes unnecessarily large, which is not preferable.

  Further, as in Patent Document 2, when the separator is fixed to the carrier with the adhesive layer and conveyed, the surface of the separator is contaminated with the components of the adhesive layer. If the surface of the separator is contaminated, an adhesion failure of the adhesive seal provided between the pair of separators to prevent leakage of the reaction gas and the cooling medium may occur, and the reaction gas and the cooling medium may leak to the outside. is there.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a separator transport method capable of preventing contamination of the separator surface and improving productivity. is there.

  A separator transport method according to an aspect of the present invention is a separator transport method having a plurality of manifold holes formed to penetrate through opposing end portions to form a reaction gas and / or cooling medium manifold. A step of bending a tray having a plurality of pins respectively arranged at positions corresponding to the plurality of manifold holes, inserting the pins into the manifold holes, and releasing the bending of the tray; And a step of bringing the plurality of pins into contact with outer edge portions of the manifold holes, and supporting and transporting the separators with a tray while pulling the separators.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it becomes possible to provide the separator conveying method which can improve the productivity while preventing contamination of the separator surface.

It is a figure for demonstrating the conveying method of the separator which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure which shows the state by which the separator was supported by the tray. It is a figure which shows the state which stores the separator supported by the tray. It is a figure explaining the method of removing a separator from a tray. It is a figure which shows the structure of a separator. It is a figure which shows a part of manufacturing process of a fuel cell.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Equivalent components in each drawing are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

  The fuel cell constitutes a fuel cell system together with a reaction gas (fuel gas and oxidant gas) supply unit, a cooling medium supply unit, and the like. The fuel cell is used in a configuration of a fuel cell stack in which a plurality of single cells are stacked. A single cell is a polymer electrolyte fuel cell. The single cell has a membrane electrode assembly and a pair of separators sandwiching the membrane electrode assembly.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of the separator 10. As shown in FIG. 5, the separator 10 has a rectangular outer shape, and a reaction gas and cooling medium flow path 11 is formed in a central region facing the power generation region of the membrane electrode assembly. A plurality of manifold holes 12 are formed through the separator 10 at opposite ends of the separator 10. In the embodiment, three manifold holes 12 are arranged along two opposing short sides of the separator 10. A plurality of single cells are stacked to form a manifold for supply / discharge of the reaction gas and supply / discharge of the cooling medium. In FIG. 5, the side surrounded by the broken line of the manifold hole 12 is an outer edge portion 13.

  Between the pair of separators 10, a resin sheet (not shown) made of a frame-shaped thermoplastic resin or the like is provided at the peripheral portion of the membrane electrode assembly in order to ensure the gas sealing property of the reaction gas flow path in the single cell. Is placed. In addition, a gasket (not shown) is disposed around the manifold hole in order to ensure sealing performance in the manifold.

  The separator 10 is formed of a gas impermeable conductive member. As such a member, for example, dense carbon compressed by gas and impermeable to gas, or press-molded metal plate is employed. The separator is manufactured by pressing a thin base material.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a part of the manufacturing process of such a fuel cell. In FIG. 6, the process from the process of the separator 10 to the assembly process of a single cell is shown. As shown in FIG. 6, first, the separator 10 is processed into a predetermined shape (S1). And after cleaning the separator 10 (S2), a gasket is affixed on the separator 10 (S3). Thereafter, the separator 10 with the gasket attached is conveyed (S4), a resin sheet is sandwiched between the pair of separators 10 (S5), and the pair of separators 10 are bonded by hot pressing to complete a single cell. (S6).

  In the separator processing step (S <b> 1), since the thin base material is pressed into a predetermined shape, warping and bending remain in the separator 10. In the separator transporting step (S4), when such a separator 10 is transported in a tray, there is a problem that it jumps over the wall of the tray and jumps out. When the separator 10 jumps out of the tray and proceeds to the subsequent process, the separator 10 and the resin sheet are stacked in a shifted state, the mold is contaminated with the resin during hot pressing, and the line is stopped for a long time for cleaning. Resulting in.

  In order to solve this, for example, it is conceivable to deepen the bottom of the tray and raise the wall, but the loading efficiency of the separator 10 decreases. It is also conceivable to provide an adhesive layer at the bottom of the tray to prevent the separator 10 from slipping, but this causes another problem that the separator surface is contaminated by components of the adhesive layer. As described above, the present inventor has devised the following transport method in order to solve the problem in storage and transport when transporting the separator 10 with the gasket attached thereto in S4 of FIG.

  As described above, the separator has a plurality of manifold holes formed through the opposing end portions for forming a manifold for the reaction gas and / or the cooling medium. In the embodiment, a tray having a plurality of pins respectively arranged at positions corresponding to the plurality of manifold holes is used. After the tray is bent and pins are inserted into the manifold holes, the tray is released from bending, the pins are brought into contact with the outer edges of the manifold holes, and supported by the tray while pulling the separator. Transport. Thereby, it can convey, without contaminating the separator surface.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a method of conveying the separator 10 according to the embodiment. In the embodiment, the tray 20 shown in FIG. The tray 20 is made of a flexible material that bends when an external force is applied. By compressing the tray 20 by applying a load, the tray 20 can be bent so that the surface of the tray 20 opposite to the surface on which the pins 21 are formed is convex. Moreover, the tray 20 can be returned to the original shape by releasing the load applied to the tray 20.

  In addition, the tray 20 has a plurality of pins 21 arranged respectively at positions corresponding to the plurality of manifold holes 12 of the separator 10. In the embodiment, when the separator 10 is disposed on the tray 20, two pins are disposed along two opposing short sides of the separator 10. On one short side of the separator 10, these two pins 21 are respectively provided at positions corresponding to the two manifold holes 12 outside the three manifold holes 12. With the tray 20 bent, the four pins 21 are inserted into the corresponding manifold holes 12 respectively. When the tray 20 is not bent, it is designed to contact the outer edge portion 13 of the manifold hole 12.

  On the surface of the tray 20 on which the separator 10 is placed, a wall 22 is erected so as to surround the outer periphery of the separator 10. The height of the wall 22 is larger than the thickness of the separator 10. For this reason, the separator 10 is fixed at a position lower than the top surface of the wall 22. In the embodiment, the separator 10 is transported with a gasket attached. In this case, the height of the wall 22 is larger than the thickness of the separator 10 including the gasket.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, first, two opposing sides on which the pins 21 of the tray 20 are formed are fixed by a chuck 23. And the separator 10 is arrange | positioned on the surface in which the pin 21 of the tray 20 was formed.

  Thereafter, the tray 20 is compressed by applying a load. As a result, as shown in FIG. 1B, the horizontal distance between the pins 21 on the opposite sides of the tray 20 becomes smaller than when no load is applied. After the tray 20 is bent along the warp of the separator 10 as described above, the separator 10 is placed on the tray 20 and the pins 21 are inserted into the manifold holes 12.

  And the chuck | zipper 23 is removed and the load concerning the tray 20 is cancelled | released. Thereby, as shown in (c) of Drawing 1, tray 20 returns to the original shape. In this way, the pin 21 is brought into contact with the outer edge portion 13 of the manifold hole 12 of the separator 10 by making the tray 20 not bent. FIG. 2 shows a state where the separator 10 is supported by the tray 20. As shown in FIG. 2, the four pins 21 contact the outer edge portions 13 of the corresponding manifold holes 12, and the separator 10 is pulled by the pins 21 and fixed to the tray 20.

  As described above, in the embodiment, the separator 10 can be transported while being fixed to the tray while being pulled by the pin 21 using the manifold hole that is an essential component of the separator 10 of the fuel cell.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the tray 20 to which the separator 10 is fixed can be stored and transported in a stacked state. In embodiment, the separator 10 is conveyed in the state which affixed the gasket. When such a separator 10 with a gasket is directly stacked, the surface of the separator 10 is contaminated by the gasket. However, in the embodiment, the separator 10 is fixed to the tray 20. For this reason, when the trays 20 are stacked, the top of the wall 22 comes into contact with the bottom surface of the tray 20 stacked on top, and the gasket does not contact the surface of the separator 10. Thereby, contamination of the surface of the separator 10 can be prevented.

  Next, a method for removing the separator 10 from the tray 20 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 4A, first, the separator 10 is held by a holding member. For example, it is possible to hold the separator 10 by suction using the suction hand 30. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4B, two opposite sides of the tray 20 are fixed by the chuck 23, and the tray 20 is bent by applying a load. Thereby, fixation of the separator 10 by the pin 21 is cancelled | released. Then, as shown in FIG. 4C, the separator 10 is moved upward by the suction hand 30 and removed from the tray 20.

  As described above, according to the embodiment, the separator 10 can be fixed to the tray and conveyed while being pulled by the pin 21 using the manifold hole. Thereby, since it is not necessary to provide a grip part like patent document 1, it becomes possible to improve productivity, without increasing the number of manufacturing processes. Moreover, contamination of the surface of the separator 10 can be prevented, and quality can be improved.

  Moreover, after the tray 20 is bent according to the warp of the separator 10 and the separator 10 is placed, the separator 10 can be fixed to the tray 20 in a pulled state, and there is no need to increase the depth of the tray 20. . Therefore, the separator 10 can be prevented from jumping out from the tray 20 without reducing the loading efficiency.

  Further, since the separator 10 is continuously pulled by the pin 21 during storage / conveyance, the effect of correcting the warpage of the separator 10 can be obtained. For this reason, it is possible to improve workability when the separators 10 are stacked after conveyance. When the separator 10 is removed from the tray 20, the separator 10 can be easily adsorbed because the separator is pulled and fixed.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be changed as appropriate without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, the number, position, shape, and the like of the pins 21 provided on the tray 20 may be changed. Moreover, it is also possible to convey the separator 10 in a state where the gasket is not attached by using the tray 20.

10 Separator 11 Channel 12 Manifold Hole 13 Outer Edge 20 Tray 21 Pin 22 Wall 23 Chuck 30 Suction Hand W Workpiece

Claims (1)

A method of transporting a separator having a plurality of manifold holes for forming a manifold for a reaction gas and / or a cooling medium, which is formed so as to penetrate through opposing ends,
Bending a tray having a plurality of pins respectively arranged at positions corresponding to the plurality of manifold holes, and inserting the pins into the manifold holes;
Releasing the deflection of the tray, bringing the plurality of pins into contact with outer edge portions of the plurality of manifold holes, and supporting and transporting the separator while pulling the separator;
Comprising
Separator transport method.

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