Formability of Commercial Pure Titanium in Microchannel Bipolar Plates Using Warm Stamping Process

Due to their excellent mechanical, electrical and thermal properties and ease of production, metallic bipolar plates are a suitable replacement for graphite and composite plates. Stamping is one of the most applicable processes to produce theses plates from a manufacturing cost point of view. Due to its excellent corrosion resistance and low density, titanium rises as a potential option for the manufacturing of the bipolar plates. In this paper, the formability of titanium bipolar plates having a thickness of 0.1mm with a parallel flow field has been experimentally investigated. The formability of the sheet was evaluated at warm temperatures using different forming speed and lubricants. After the experimental implementation of the designed tests based on the Taguchi method, the fracture depth of the microchannel of stamped samples was extracted. The results showed that the most elongation of the sheet will be achieved at 100℃. Likewise, the forming speed and temperature are the most effective parameters on the forming depth, respectively. On the other hand, the effect of the lubricant is not tangible compared to the other mentioned parameters. The maximum forming depth equal to 0.494mm was obtained using an experiment with a forming temperature of 100℃, speed of 4.8mm/min, and lubrication with MoS2.