Assembly, fuel cell using same, and method of disassembling same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10637076-B2
Application number	US-201615131864-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 18, 2016
Priority date	Jun 2, 2015
Publication date	Apr 28, 2020
Grant date	Apr 28, 2020

Abstract

An assembly, including: an electrolyte membrane; and a frame that holds the electrolyte membrane, wherein the frame includes a first frame that holds one surface of the electrolyte membrane, and a second frame that holds the other surface of the electrolyte membrane, the frame further has a joint part that joins the first frame and the second frame, and the joint part has a projection.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An assembly, comprising:
an electrolyte membrane; and
a frame that holds the electrolyte membrane, wherein the frame includes a first frame that holds one surface of the electrolyte membrane, and a second frame that holds the other surface of the electrolyte membrane, the frame further includes a joint sheet that is on an interface of the first frame and the second frame and joins the first frame and the second frame, and the joint sheet has a projection protruding from a side surface of the joint sheet in a direction perpendicular to the side surface and in an outer peripheral direction to the assembly, and a width a of the projection in a direction parallel to the side surface is smaller than a width b of the projection in a direction perpendicular to the side surface,
wherein the joint sheet is located over a first surface of the first frame and a second surface of the second frame,
wherein the joint sheet and the projection are sheet-shaped and have a same upper surface, and the thickness of the projection is larger than the thickness of the joint sheet, and a part of the projection end portion enters the second frame.

2. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the projection projects in a direction parallel to the first surface and the second surface.

3. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the joint sheet is a frame-shaped polygon in plan view, and a corner part of the joint sheet includes the projection in plan view.

4. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein a width of the joint sheet at the corner part of a polygon is larger than a width of the joint sheet in a portion other than the corner part of the polygon in plan view.

5. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein two of the projections are present, and positions of the two projections are opposing to each other at the joint sheet in plan view.

6. The assembly according to claim 3 , wherein the polygon is a tetragon.

7. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the first frame is sheet-shaped, and a thickness of the joint sheet is larger than a thickness of the second frame at a lower part of the joint sheet.

8. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein a thickness of the projection is larger than the thickness of the second frame at a lower part of the projection.

9. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the second frame has a thin portion, and the first frame is located on the thin portion.

10. A fuel cell, comprising plural single cell modules that are stacked, each of the modules includes the assembly of claim 1 and a pair of separators with the assembly placed therebetween.

11. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the projection contacts only the second frame.

12. The assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the projection is a starting point when disassembling the assembly.

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Fujii Tsutomu
• Yoshimura Mitsuo

Classifications

• H01M8/0273 Primary

  with sealing or supporting means in the form of a frame · CPC title

• H01M8/026

  characterised by grooves, e.g. their pitch or depth · CPC title

• H01M8/0276

  Sealing means characterised by their form (H01M8/0273 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01M8/1007

  with both reactants being gaseous or vaporised (H01M8/12 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01M2008/1095

  Fuel cells with polymeric electrolytes · CPC title