Experimental Investigation and Numerical Simulation of the Pressure Force on the Formation of Metallic Bipolar Plate in the Stamping Process

Bipolar plates are one of the most important parts of the fuel cell which have the highest production cost for the system. In this study, the formability of SS 316L bipolar plates with an active area of 100 cm2 by the stamping process is investigated. With respect to various types of the forming process, stamping process has the advantages of simplicity, higher production speed, and lower production. In this process, the sheet is considered to be between two rigid die slabs, and applying force to the die set results in forming the plates. The important issue of bipolar plates is the dimension accuracy of the channels. In this paper, the width and flatness of the channels and ribs of the produced plates are investigated. If the tolerances of the formed channels are not in the desirable range, the performance of the fuel cell is disturbed and the fuel cell efficiency is considerably decreased. The results of this study demonstrate that increasing the stamping force results in an increase of the width of channel and rib. Moreover, the flatness due to the spring-back of the sheet is in the desired tolerance range and these plates can be utilized as metallic bipolar plates in the fuel cell stacks.