Aida Engineering is now selling its new BEX series presses as dedicated machines for forming metal separators for the bipolar plates used in fuel cells and electrolysers (water electrolysis devices). With a design based on the Aida high-rigidity, high-precision UL series, BEX series presses are intended for the high-precision forming of thin plates.

Fuel cells, used in fuel cell vehicles and home energy-use fuel cells, are power generation devices that extract the electricity generated by electrochemical reactions between hydrogen and oxygen. Furthermore, the development of electrolysers is also progressing in preparation for a future hydrogen-based society. In turn, demand for the bipolar plates required for these devices is expected to increase.

Separators are critical components for bipolar plates, and they have narrow, tightly-spaced channels that allow hydrogen and oxygen to pass through them. Mass production is possible using cold-forming presses to form metal plates, such as stainless steel plates. High-precision product accuracy is required when forming metal separators, and there were many issues that arose because the designs of conventional presses made it difficult to achieve the needed product accuracy.

Aida participated in a bipolar plate subcommittee at a European research institute and studied the various elements required of presses in order to form metal separators. This led to the development of the BEX series.

Although BEX presses have a one-point design for accommodating centrally-concentrated forming loads at the centre of the press, they also provide a wide area to accommodate multi-stage forming. Rigidity is approximately two times better than Aida’s UL series presses.

More information www.aida.co.jp/en

Sutherland Presses says that one of its valued customers in Jalisco, Mexico, has achieved remarkable results with two of its 200-ton mechanical presses, setting a benchmark for reliability and performance. In just over two years, the presses have completed 30 million strokes, operating with minimal downtime.

Running 24 hours a day from Monday to Saturday, the machines achieve approximately 180,000 strokes daily. This performance has allowed Sutherland’s customer to meet its output targets on a consistent basis and confidently present production volumes to its own clients.

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A significant factor behind this success is continuous communication with the service team at Sutherland Presses and adherence to a rigorous preventive maintenance schedule. Certified technicians, armed with advanced diagnostic tools, deliver meticulous maintenance services that have already helped companies reduce their downtime by more than 40%.

Also integral to success has been the I-Press control and automation system. This system enhances operator guidance with over 130 monitored press faults and provides on-screen sequential steps for resolution, ensuring smooth operations. It offers expanded job memory capacity for storing over 200 jobs with alpha-numeric job names and remote connectivity for assistance and monitoring. High customisation and expandability options without costly chip replacements, along with upgrades unlocked directly from software, make it a useful tool.

I-Press also includes programmable cams, a die monitor I/O for detailed control configurations, tonnage monitoring to protect tooling, and on-screen fault diagnostics and troubleshooting for quick issue resolution.

More information www.sutherlandpresses.com