Rensselaer Uses Robots to Assemble Fuel Cell Stacks

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Nov 9 2005

“氢经济”的回声正在全国各地回荡，但是许多障碍都挡住了。专家说，最大的是制造燃料电池的高成本。A new research project at伦斯勒理工学院aims to tackle the challenge of mass production by using robots to assemble fuel cell stacks.

The project, which will combine the resources of Rensselaer's Flexible Manufacturing Center (FMC) and Center for Automation Technologies and Systems (CATS), was recently supported with a major research equipment award from the Robotics Industries Association (RIA). As one of four universities selected in a nationwide competition, Rensselaer will receive three new industrial robot systems to help develop a flexible robotic process to produce fuel cell stacks.

"The U.S. Department of Energy has suggested that the cost of manufacturing fuel cells is the single biggest obstacle on the road to the hydrogen economy," says Raymond Puffer, co-director of the FMC. "We are addressing a component that represents a major portion of the total systems cost: the stack assembly in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell."

In a PEM fuel cell, hydrogen is split into protons and electrons on one side of a thin polymer membrane. The membrane allows protons to pass through, but electrons are forced to go around, creating a flow of electrical current. On the other side of the membrane, the electrons recombine with the protons and with oxygen from the air, creating water and heat as the only byproducts. To produce enough energy for most applications, multiple fuel cells are combined in a fuel cell stack.

FMC的另一个联合导演斯蒂芬·德比（Stephen Derby）说：“目前，通常要花费一整天的时间来组装和泄漏单个堆栈。”“要在商业上可行，必须在几分钟而不是几个小时内完成堆栈组件。”

德比，puffer及其同事通过与Pemeas合作（PEM燃料电池的高温膜电极组件（MES））通过合作将其专业知识应用于制造过程中。2002年，研究人员在该公司在德国法兰克福的工厂开发了一条完全自动化的MEA飞行员制造产品线，这些措施以前是手工制作的。

To begin addressing the PEM stack assembly process, the researchers plan to create a flexible robotic "workcell," which will include various pieces of robotic equipment designed to handle materials with great precision. The RIA award includes three full industrial robot systems, donated by the Kuka Robot Group, and collision-avoidance sensors for the systems, provided by RAD, a robotics accessories supplier.

Puffer说：“ PEM亚博网站下载堆中的许多材料都是薄的，柔韧的，浸泡在腐蚀性酸中，或对湿度和温度的变化高度敏感。”“这使得材料处理订单的数量级比用于简单柔性材料（例如纸）的方法要困难。”亚博网站下载研究人员将使用现有的自动化方法来更深入地了解PEM堆栈材料如何响应各种处理技术，同时还研究了在整个过程中感知材料属性的新方法。亚博网站下载

该项目将在伦斯勒（Rensselaer）的新跨学科计划中发挥重要作用，以培训燃料电池科学和工程学的博士生。亚博老虎机网登录该计划得到了国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的320万美元的首次燃料燃料电池研究教育资助，加上伦斯勒（Rensselaer）的160万美元投资。亚博老虎机网登录

联邦机构以及一个行业财团将寻求其他研究支持，目的是增加对整个机器人行业中PEM堆栈组装过程的理解。研究人员将在2007年的下一次国际机器人与愿景会议上发表最终报告。