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