SEPARATOR INTEGRATED WITH GASKET FOR FUEL CELL AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME
20230066335 · 2023-03-02
Inventors
Cpc classification
Y02P70/50
GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
Y02E60/50
GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
International classification
Abstract
A separator with integrated gasket including a first gasket part bonded to a separator by seating the separator formed with a burring part on a lower core, moving and assembling a mold including a slide core, and injecting molten resin into a cavity and then cooling it, and a second gasket part bent from the first gasket part and not bonded to the separator may be molded and taken out. The fastening part and the burring part may be fitted and fastened by rotating the second gasket part of the taken-out separator with the integrated gasket.
Claims
1. A method for manufacturing a separator integrated with a gasket, the method comprising: seating the separator formed with a burring part on a lower core; moving an upper core, a first slide core, and a second slide core to assemble a cavity in a preset shape in a mold; injecting molten resin into the cavity, cooling the molten resin to form the separator integrated with the gasket comprising a first gasket part bonded to the separator by cooling the molten resin and a second gasket part bent from the first gasket part and not bonded to the separator; and moving the upper core, the first slide core, and the second slide core; and removing the separator integrated with the gasket from the cavity.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first slide core comprises: a projection protruding toward the second slide core, and a fastening hole formed in the second gasket part by the projection.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second slide core is formed with a first groove portion and a second groove portion extending vertically, and the second gasket part is formed with a first sealing concave portion and a second sealing concave portion with the fastening hole interposed therebetween by the first groove portion and the second groove portion.
4. The method of claim 2, further comprising: fitting the burring part into the fastening hole by moving the second gasket part of the separator integrated with the gasket.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first slide core and the second slide core have a core lower shape where a bending portion between the first gasket part and the second gasket part is formed to be round upon closing the mold.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the burring part of the separator seated on the lower core in the seating of the separator is processed on the separator in advance forming a cylindrical first flange portion extending vertically and a ring-shaped second flange portion formed to horizontally extend outward from the first flange portion.
7. A separator with integrated gasket for a fuel cell comprising: the separator formed with at least one burring part; a first gasket part bonded to the separator; and a second gasket part integrally formed with the first gasket part, and bent from the first gasket part and not bonded to the separator, wherein the second gasket part is formed with at least one fastening hole, wherein a number of fastening holes corresponds to the number of burring parts and each fastening hole of the at least one fastening hole configured to be fitted onto a respective each burring part of the at least one burring part.
8. The separator with integrated gasket of claim 7, wherein the at least one burring part is composed of a plurality of burring parts aligned and formed at recurring intervals, and the at least one fastening hole is composed of a plurality of fastening holes aligned and formed at intervals corresponding to the plurality of burring parts.
9. The separator with integrated gasket of claim 8, wherein the second gasket part comprises: a first sealing concave portion and a second sealing concave portion formed with the plurality of fastening holes formed in a row interposed therebetween, and the first sealing concave portion and the second sealing concave portion are formed to extend in a direction in which the plurality of fastening holes are aligned.
10. The separator with integrated gasket of claim 7, wherein the first gasket part and the second gasket part ae connected to each other by a bending portion, and wherein the second gasket part is fixed by one of the at least one burring part of the separator by rotating the second gasket part toward the separator to fit the one of the at least one burring part into one of the at least one fastening hole, based on the bending portion.
11. The separator with integrated gasket of claim 10, wherein the bending portion has upper and lower surfaces, which connect the first gasket part and the second gasket part, respectively, in a rounded shape.
12. The separator with integrated gasket of claim 7, wherein the at least one burring part comprises: a cylindrical first flange portion extending vertically and a ring-shaped second flange portion formed to horizontally extend outward from the first flange portion.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0026] The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present disclosure will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
[0027]
[0028]
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[0039]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE
[0040] It is understood that the term “vehicle” or “vehicular” or other similar term as used herein is inclusive of motor vehicles in general such as passenger automobiles including sports utility vehicles (SUV), buses, trucks, various commercial vehicles, watercraft including a variety of boats and ships, aircraft, and the like, and includes hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, hydrogen-powered vehicles and other alternative fuel vehicles (e.g. fuels derived from resources other than petroleum). As referred to herein, a hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that has two or more sources of power, for example both gasoline-powered and electric-powered vehicles.
[0041] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. These terms are merely intended to distinguish one component from another component, and the terms do not limit the nature, sequence or order of the constituent components. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. Throughout the specification, unless explicitly described to the contrary, the word “comprise” and variations such as “comprises” or “comprising” will be understood to imply the inclusion of stated elements but not the exclusion of any other elements. In addition, the terms “unit”, “-er”, “-or”, and “module” described in the specification may mean units for processing at least one function and operation, and can be implemented by hardware components or software components and combinations thereof.
[0042] Although an exemplary embodiment is described as using a plurality of units to perform the exemplary process, it is understood that the exemplary processes may also be performed by one or a plurality of modules. Additionally, it is understood that the term controller/control unit refers to a hardware device that includes a memory and a processor and is specifically programmed to execute the processes described herein. The memory is configured to store the modules and the processor is specifically configured to execute said modules to perform one or more processes which are described further below.
[0043] Further, the control logic of the present disclosure may be embodied as non-transitory computer readable media on a computer readable medium containing executable program instructions executed by a processor, controller or the like. Examples of computer readable media include, but are not limited to, ROM, RAM, compact disc (CD)-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, flash drives, smart cards and optical data storage devices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed in network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable media is stored and executed in a distributed fashion, e.g., by a telematics server or a Controller Area Network (CAN). Exemplary embodiments described herein may include a controller for controlling the movement of the mold portions, closing the mold, the injection of the resin, the cooling time and/or monitoring, and/or the opening of the mold.
[0044] Unless specifically stated or obvious from context, as used herein, the term “about” is understood as within a range of normal tolerance in the art, for example within 2 standard deviations of the mean. “About” can be understood as within 10%, 9%, 8%, 7%, 6%, 5%, 4%, 3%, 2%, 1%, 0.5%, 0.1%, 0.05%, or 0.01% of the stated value. Unless otherwise clear from the context, all numerical values provided herein are modified by the term“about”.
[0045] Hereinafter, some embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the exemplary drawings. In adding the reference numerals to the components of each drawing, it should be noted that the identical or equivalent component is designated by the identical numeral even when they are displayed on other drawings. Further, in describing the embodiment of the present disclosure, a detailed description of the related known configuration or function will be omitted when it is determined that it interferes with the understanding of the embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0046] Hereinafter, a separator integrated with a gasket for a fuel cell and a method for manufacturing the same according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0047]
[0048] Further,
[0049] As shown in
[0050] The burring part 101 may be formed on the separator 100. As shown in
[0051] Referring to
[0052] The second gasket part 202 may be integrally formed with the first gasket part 201, and may be formed with the fastening hole 203 corresponding to the burring part 101 to be fitted into the burring part 101. Further, the second gasket part 202 includes a first sealing concave portion 202a and a second sealing concave portion 202b formed vertically with the fastening hole 203 interposed therebetween. The first sealing concave portion 202a and the second sealing concave portion 202b may be configurations for providing airtightness performance upon stacking the unit cell. As used with respect to
[0053] As shown in
[0054] After manufacturing the separator integrated with the gasket for the fuel cell shown in
[0055] The finally completed separator with integrated gasket for the fuel cell may be, for example, an anode separator, and as shown in
[0056] Meanwhile,
[0057] In an exemplary embodiment, the burring part 101 may be composed of the plurality of burring parts 110 aligned and formed at regular intervals. Further, the fastening hole 203 formed in the second gasket part 202 may be composed of a plurality of fastening holes 203 aligned and formed at intervals corresponding to the plurality of burring parts 101.
[0058] Further, the second gasket part 202 may include the first sealing concave portion 202a and the second sealing concave portion 202b formed with the plurality of fastening holes 203 formed in a row interposed therebetween, and as shown in
[0059] A specific structure of the burring part 101 formed on the separator will be described with reference to
[0060] As shown in
[0061] In an exemplary embodiment, the burring part 101 may be formed to be coupled to the fastening hole 203 formed in the second gasket part 202 to fix the second gasket part 202. To this end, as shown in
[0062] Hereinafter, a process of manufacturing the separator integrated with the gasket for the fuel cell having the cross-sectional structure shown in
[0063]
[0064] As shown in
[0065] Specifically, as shown in
[0066] When the separator 100 is seated in a right location, the first slide core 3, the second slide core 4, and the upper core 2 may be moved in the mold closing direction, thereby completing the shape of the cavity according to the shape of the gasket 200 to be injected and molded. In other words, as shown in
[0067] The first slide core 3 and the second slide core 4 may be formed in a form capable of manufacturing the shapes required by the first gasket part 201 and the second gasket part 202, and preferably, the first slide core 3 includes a projection protruding toward the second slide core 4, and may be configured to form the fastening hole 203 by the projection upon assembling. Further, the second slide core 4 may be formed with a first groove portion and a second groove portion extending horizontally. Therefore, the second gasket part 202 may be formed with the first sealing concave portion 202a and the second sealing concave portion 202b with the fastening hole 203 interposed therebetween by the first groove portion and the second groove portion of the second slide core 4.
[0068] After injecting the molten resin, if the injected product may be completed depending upon the required shape after a resin curing (cooling) process, as shown in
[0069]
[0070] According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, in forming the bending portion between the first gasket part 201 and the second gasket part 202, it may be possible to mold the shape of the bending portion to be round, thereby further improving degradation performance, etc. on a boundary portion between the first gasket part 201 and the second gasket part 202. Although for the separator integrated with the gasket for the fuel cell, the second gasket part 202 may be bent and fitted into the burring part, damage such as breakage does not occur due to the basic physical property (tensile, elongation, and hardness) of the rubber material generally used as the material of the gasket. However, considering the durability of the fuel cell, the possibility of degradation on the boundary portion cannot be fully ignored, and therefore, still another implementation example of the present disclosure may be characterized by being formed in a shape of a rounded boundary portion in a curved shape to improve the performance of the boundary portion.
[0071] In this regard,
[0072] In
[0073] In this regard,
[0074] Further,
[0075] When being compared with the separator integrated with the gasket for the fuel cell manufactured according to the exemplary embodiment of
[0076] Meanwhile,
[0077] Upon injection-molding, a flow resistance ΔP has the following correlation in relation to a molding length, a molding width, and a molding height.
ΔP(flow resistance)∂L(molding length) [Correlation 1]
ΔP(flow resistance)∂1/W(molding width) [Correlation 2]
ΔP(flow resistance)∂1/H.sup.3(molding height) [Correlation 3]
[0078] Considering a flow direction (I) of the molten resin, the conventional separator with integrated gasket for the fuel cell corresponds to a case where the molding width (W) may be relatively larger than the molding height (H), and has a relatively large flow resistance.
[0079] On the other hand, the structure of the separator integrated with the gasket for the fuel cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure largely increase in the molding height compared to that of the conventional structure upon molding, and therefore, the flow resistance (ΔP) may be relatively reduced. Therefore, it may be possible to reduce the deformation of the separator and the overflow of the burr upon molding, thereby improving productivity. Further, it may be possible to inject the thin-film gasket in a thickness relatively smaller than that of the conventional separator structure, thereby reducing the thickness of the gasket to reduce the pitch of the cell.
[0080] While the specific exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure has been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure may be variously improved and changed without departing from the technical spirit of the present disclosure provided by the appended claims.