Performance testing apparatus of fuel cell

A performance testing apparatus of a fuel cell is provided. The apparatus includes a moving body that stacks at least one unit cell and is installed to be movable along a predetermined transporting path on a frame. A pressurizing unit is mounted to the frame, presses the unit cell on the moving body moved from a beginning stage side of the transporting path, and supplies a reaction fluid to the unit cell. A terminal connection part is mounted to the pressurizing unit side the frame and connects a terminal to output a voltage of the unit cell to the unit cell.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2015-0156965 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Nov. 9, 2015, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

(a) Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a performance testing apparatus of a fuel cell, and more particularly, to a performance testing apparatus of a fuel cell that enables of testing a performance while maintaining an activation state of the fuel cell.

(b) Description of the Related Art

In general, a fuel cell includes an electrode for generating an electrochemical reaction with a fuel and an oxidizer, a polymer electrolyte membrane for transferring protons generated by the reaction, and a separator (commonly called a “separation plate”) for supporting the electrode and the polymer electrolyte membrane. The fuel cell includes a unit cell of an individual unit, to obtain high potential, the unit cell may be stacked by a required number of the potentials.

Further, in a manufacturing process for producing a membrane-electrode assembly including an electrode and a polymer electrolyte film of the fuel cell, a failure detection of the membrane-electrode assembly is limited to a surface testing by a vision. Therefore, before stacking the unit cells into the completion stack, an evaluation method of the performance of the unit cells is incomplete. For the performance testing of the unit cells, a reaction fluid is supplied to the unit cell, and it is necessary to maintain an activation of the unit cell, in the related art, after assembling the stack by stacking the unit cells, the activation state of the unit cells is maintained and the performance testing is executed.

The activation maintenance and the performance evaluation of the fuel cell are performed by different methods for each manufacture of the fuel cell, however the main method includes driving the unit cells during a substantial period of time under a predetermined voltage. Additionally, the activation maintenance and the performance evaluation process of the fuel cell according to the related art includes supplying the reaction fluid of the fuel and an oxidant to the unit cells of the stack and applying the electrical energy generated in the unit cells to an electronic load after manufacturing the stack of which the plurality of the unit cells are stacked and engaged. However, since the process of the activation maintenance and the performance evaluation of the fuel cell is executed after assembling the unit cells into the completion stack, this process is inefficient in aspects of cost and time.

SUMMARY

The present invention provides a performance testing apparatus of a fuel cell that evaluates the performance of the membrane-electrode assembly while maintaining the activation of the unit cell that is sampled in each lot of the manufacturing process of the fuel cell before assembling the stack.

Additionally, the present invention provides a performance testing apparatus of a fuel cell that obtains a membrane-electrode assembly quality testing reference in the manufacturing process of the fuel cell by analyzing the performance of the unit cell in conjunction with a surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly obtained in the fuel cell manufacturing process.

A performance testing apparatus of a fuel cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include a moving body that stacks at least one unit cell and may be installed to be movable along a predetermined transporting path on a frame; a pressurizing unit installed to the frame, configured to press the unit cell on the moving body moved from a beginning stage side of the transporting path, and configured to supply a reaction fluid to the unit cell; and a terminal connection part attached to the pressurizing unit side the frame and that connects a terminal to output a voltage of the unit cell to the unit cell.

The performance testing apparatus may further include a controller configured to monitor an output voltage of the unit cell output through the terminal connection part and evaluate the performance of the unit cell. The controller may be configured to supply a reaction fluid to the unit cell using the pressurizing unit when the unit cell is pressed by the pressurizing unit during a predetermined period of time. The performance testing apparatus of the fuel cell may further include a reaction fluid supply part installed to be connected to the pressurizing unit and configured to supply the reaction fluid to the unit cell through the pressurizing unit.

The performance testing apparatus of the fuel cell may further include a cooling media supply part installed to be connected to the moving body and configured to supply a cooling media to the unit cell through the moving body. The frame may be divided into, based on the transporting path, a stack section as a region where the unit cell is stacked to the moving body of the beginning stage side of the transporting path, a pressure section as a region where the unit cell on the moving body moved from the stack section is pressed by the pressurizing unit, and a draw out section (e.g., extraction section) as a region where the unit cell on the moving body moved to an end stage side of the transporting path from the pressure section is extracted (e.g., drawn out).

The frame may include a first moving rail installed from the beginning stage of the transporting path to the end stage, and a second moving rail connected to the first moving rail of the beginning stage side of the transporting path to be mutually crossed. The moving body may be installed to be movable by the first driving part along the first and second moving rails. The pressurizing unit may include a press body mounted to the press frame on the frame to be movable in vertical directions and configured to press or exert pressure onto the unit cell stacked on the moving body.

The press body may be installed with a reaction fluid supply part configured to supply the reaction fluid to the unit cell to be connected. The press body may be provided as an upper end plate connected to the reaction fluid supply part and may include a manifold configured to supply and exhaust the reaction fluid for the unit cell. The moving body may include a supporting plate configured to support the unit cell. The supporting plate may be installed with a cooling media supply part configured to supply the cooling media to the unit cell to be connected. The supporting plate may be provided as a lower end plate connected to the cooling media supply part and may include a manifold configured to supply and exhaust the cooling media for the unit cell.

The press body may be installed to be connected to an operation rod of a press cylinder provided in the press frame. The press frame may be installed with a plurality of guide rods configured to support the press body to be guided in the vertical direction. The terminal connection part may be installed to be reciprocally moved by the second driving part in the direction crossing the transporting path.

Moreover, a performance testing apparatus of the fuel cell maintaining an activation of a unit cell sampled in each lot of a fuel cell manufacturing process and evaluating a performance of the unit cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include a moving body configured to stack at least one unit cell and installed to be movable along a predetermined transporting path on a frame; a pressurizing unit installed to the frame, configured to press the unit cell on the moving body moved from a beginning stage side of the transporting path, and supply a reaction fluid to the unit cell; a terminal connection part mounted to the pressurizing unit side the frame and that connects a terminal to output a voltage of the unit cell to the unit cell; and a controller configured to monitor an output voltage of the unit cell output through the terminal connection part and evaluate the performance of the unit cell. The controller may be configured to store a performance evaluation information of the unit cell and a surface defect information of a membrane-electrode assembly obtained from the fuel cell manufacturing process, analyze the performance of the unit cell based on the information, and feedback the analysis result to the fuel cell manufacturing process.

The performance testing apparatus of the fuel cell may stack at least one unit cell on the moving body of the beginning stage side of the transporting path, move the unit cell to the pressurizing unit side using the moving body, press the unit cell using the pressurizing unit and supply the reaction fluid to the unit cell, and connect a voltage output terminal to the unit cell using the terminal connection part. The performance testing apparatus of the fuel cell may further apply the output voltage of the unit cell to the electronic load equipment using the voltage output terminal, and may monitor the output voltage of the unit cell applied to the electronic load equipment using the controller. The performance testing apparatus of the fuel cell may also release the pressure of the unit cell of the pressurizing unit and move the unit cell to the end stage side of the transporting path using the moving body.

According to exemplary embodiments of the present invention, before configuring the membrane-electrode assembly produced in each lot of the fuel cell manufacturing process as the unit cell1and assembling the unit cell as the stack, since the performance of the membrane-electrode assembly is sampling and tested, the time aspect and the cost aspect are more efficient, and the time and the cost may be reduced.

Furthermore, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the performance of the unit cell may be analyzed in conjunction with the surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly obtained from the fuel cell manufacturing process and the analysis result may be fed back to the fuel cell manufacturing process to thus obtain and improve the quality testing reference of the membrane-electrode assembly in the fuel cell manufacturing process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In order to clarify the present invention, parts that are not connected with the description will be omitted, and the same elements or equivalents are referred to with the same reference numerals throughout the specification. Also, the size and thickness of each element are arbitrarily shown in the drawings, but the present invention is not necessarily limited thereto, and in the drawings, the thickness of layers, films, panels, regions, etc., are exaggerated for clarity.

Discriminating the names of components with the first, the second, etc. in the following description is for discriminating them for the same relationship of the components and the components are not limited to the order in the following description. Further, the terms, “ . . . unit”, “ . . . mechanism”, “ . . . portion”, “ . . . member” etc. used herein mean the unit of inclusive components performing at least one or more functions or operations.

FIG. 1is a perspective view of a performance testing apparatus of a fuel cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, andFIG. 2is a front schematic diagram of a performance testing apparatus of a fuel cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Referring toFIG. 1andFIG. 2, a performance testing apparatus100of the fuel cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may maintain an activation of a unit cell1and may include a membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) and a separator disposed via the membrane-electrode assembly to evaluate the performance of the unit cell1.

The performance testing apparatus100of the fuel cell may test the performance of the membrane-electrode assembly disposed within the unit cell1by a method of supplying a fuel and an oxidant (hereinafter, referred to as “a reaction fluid”) to the unit cell1and applying a predetermined voltage output from the unit cell1to an electronic load. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the unit cell1may be configured as the membrane-electrode assembly produced in each lot of the fuel cell manufacturing process, and the unit cell1may be sampling-tested by an automatic process through the performance testing apparatus100, in this case, a test series testing process may be executed separately from the fuel cell manufacturing process.

Particularly, the membrane-electrode assembly sampled in each lot of the fuel cell manufacturing process may have an individual identification (ID) and a bar code identifying the ID. The bar code stores surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly obtained from the fuel cell manufacturing process. The performance testing apparatus100of the fuel cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may maintain the activation of the unit cell1sampled from each lot of the fuel cell manufacturing process before assembling the stack and evaluate the performance of the membrane-electrode assembly.

Additionally, the performance testing apparatus100of the fuel cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may be configured to analyze the performance of the unit cell1in conjunction with the surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly obtained from the fuel cell manufacturing process to obtain a membrane-electrode assembly quality testing reference in the fuel cell manufacturing process. Accordingly, the performance testing apparatus100of the fuel cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include a frame10, a moving body30, a pressurizing unit50, a terminal connection part70, and a controller90.

The frame10may be configured to support various constituent elements that will be described later and may include one frame or two or more compartment frames. The frame10may include various accessory components to support the constituent elements such as a bracket, a rod, a plate, a housing, a case, a block. However, since the various accessory components are used to install the various constituent elements to the frame10, the various accessory components may collectively be referred to as the frame10except for an exceptional case in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the moving body30may be stacked with at least one unit cell1, for example, 1-10 unit cells1, and is installed to be moveable along a predetermined transporting path on the frame10. The unit cell1may be manually stacked on the moving body30or may be automatically stacked on the moving body30using a gripping device.

Further, to move or drive the moving body30along the transporting path, the frame10may include a first moving rail11installed from a beginning stage of the path to an end stage side of the transporting path along the length direction of the frame10and a second moving rail12connected to the first moving rail11at the beginning stage of the transporting path in the mutual-crossing direction. Particularly, the moving body30may be installed to be slid to the first and second moving rail11and12using the first driving part31. The first driving part31may include a linear motor that is well known in the art

The moving body30may be moved by the first driving part31in the direction crossing the first moving rail11along the second moving rail12of the beginning stage side of the transporting path. The unit cell1may be stacked on the moving body30of the beginning stage side of the transporting path. Additionally, when the unit cell1is stacked, the moving body30may be moved by the first driving part31in the direction crossing the first moving rail11along the second moving rail12and may be moved to the side of the pressurizing unit50that will be described in detailed and the end stage side of the transporting path along the first moving rail11.

Based on the transporting path of the moving body30, the frame10may be divided into a stack section13, a pressure section15, and a draw out section17(e.g., an extraction section17). The stack section13may be defined as a region where the unit cell1is stacked onto the moving body30of the beginning stage side of the transporting path. The pressure section15may be defined as a region where the unit cell1moved from the stack section13on the moving body30is pressed by the pressurizing unit50that will be described later. The extraction section17may be defined as a region where the unit cell1moved from the pressure section15to the end stage side of the transporting path on the moving body30is extracted.

Furthermore, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the moving body30, as shown inFIG. 3, may include a supporting plate33configured to support the unit cell1. The supporting plate33may be installed with a cooling agent supply part40configured to supply a cooling agent for example, a coolant to the unit cell1pressed by the pressurizing unit50to be connected. The supporting plate33may form a first manifold35connected to the cooling agent supply part40and configured to supply and discharge the coolant for the unit cell1. In other words, the supporting plate33may include the first manifold35and may be provided as a lower end plate37configured to support the lower part of the unit cell1.

Referring toFIG. 1andFIG. 2, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the pressurizing unit50may be configured to press or exert pressure onto the unit cell1moved from the stack section13of the frame10to the pressure section15on the moving body30by a predetermined pressure and to supply a reaction fluid to the unit cell1. The pressurizing unit50may be disposed at the pressure section15of the frame10and may include a press body53installed to reciprocally move in the vertical direction at the press frame51on the frame10.

In particular, the press frame51may be mounted at the pressure section15of the frame10. The press frame51may include a lower plate of a square shape mounted to the upper surface of the pressure section15of the frame10, a guide rod55mounted upright to each corner of the lower plate in the vertical direction, and an upper plate of the square shape fixedly mounted to the upper part of the guide rod55. The guide rod55may be configured to support the press body53and to guide the press body53in the vertical direction, the lower part may be coupled to each corner part of the lower plate of the press frame51, and the upper part may be coupled to each corner part of the upper plate of the press frame51.

The press body53may be configured to substantially press the unit cell1moved from the stack section13of the frame10to the pressure section15on the moving body30and may be inserted to the guide rod55to the press frame51and installed to be reciprocally moved in the vertical direction along the guide rod55by a forward and backward operation of the press cylinder57. The press cylinder57may be mounted to the upper plate of the press frame51and may include an operation rod59forward and backward operated in the vertical direction by penetrating the upper plate. The press body53may be connected to a front end (lower end) of the operation rod59.

Furthermore, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the press body53, as shown inFIG. 4, may include a reaction fluid supply part60to be connected to supply the reaction fluid to the unit cell1pressed by the press body53. The reaction fluid supply part60may be configured to supply a humidified hydrogen and an air as the reaction fluid to the unit cell1using the press body53. The press body53may form a second manifold61connected to the reaction fluid supply part60and configured to supply and discharge the reaction fluid for the unit cell1. In other words, the press body53may include the second manifold61and may be provided as the upper end plate63configured to support the upper part of the unit cell1.

Accordingly, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the unit cell1on the moving body30is pressed by the press body53, the reaction fluid provided from the reaction fluid supply part60may be supplied to the unit cell1by the second manifold61of the press body53. Accordingly, in the unit cell1, the electrical energy may be generated by an electrochemical reaction of the reaction fluid and the predetermined voltage may be output through the terminal connection part70that will be described later.

Referring toFIG. 1andFIG. 2, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the terminal connection part70may connect an output terminal71(referring toFIG. 5) to output the voltage of the unit cell1to the unit cell1. The output terminal71may be electrically connected to an electronic load equipment73by an output cable. The terminal connection part70may be mounted at the pressurizing unit50side in the pressure section15of the frame10. The terminal connection part70, as shown inFIG. 5, may include the output terminal71connected to the unit cell1and may be installed to be reciprocally moved in the direction crossing the first moving rail11as described above by the second driving part75. The second driving part75may include an operation cylinder that is well known in the prior art to reciprocally move the terminal connection part70in the direction crossing the first moving rail11for the terminal connection part70to not interfere with the moving body30.

Referring toFIG. 2, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the controller90may be configured to execute the entire operation for the performance testing apparatus100of the fuel cell. For example, the controller90may be configured to operate the moving body30, the pressurizing unit50, the terminal connection part70, the coolant supply of the cooling agent supply part40for the unit cell1, and the reaction fluid supply of the reaction fluid supply part60.

When the unit cell1on the moving body30is pressed by the press body53of the pressurizing unit50during a predetermined period of time (e.g., about 1-3 hours), the controller90may be configured to adjust the reaction fluid provided from the reaction fluid supply part60to be supplied to the unit cell1through the press body53and the coolant provided from the cooling media supply part40to be supplied to the unit cell1through the moving body30.

Furthermore, the controller90may be configured to apply the output voltage of the unit cell1to the electronic load equipment73using the terminal connection part70, may be configured to determine an error existence of the unit cell1based on a current-voltage curved line while monitoring the output voltage of the unit cell1applied to the electronic load equipment73, and may be configured to evaluate the performance of the unit cell1. The controller90, as shown inFIG. 6, may further be configured to store the performance evaluation information of the unit cell and the surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly obtained from the fuel cell manufacturing process, analyze the performance of the unit cell1based these information, and feedback the results to the fuel cell manufacturing process.

Moreover, the operation of the fuel cell performance testing apparatus100according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention constituted as above will be described in detail with reference to the previously presented drawings. Firstly, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the unit cell1may be configured as a sample of the membrane-electrode assembly produced in each lot of the fuel cell manufacturing process, and the unit cell1may be manually or automatically stacked on the moving body30in the stack section13of the frame10.

In particular, the membrane-electrode assembly of the unit cell1may have a predetermined individual ID by the bar code, and the controller90may be configured to recognize the bar code to store the surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly obtained from the fuel cell manufacturing process. Additionally, the moving body30may be in the state that the moving body30is moved by the first driving part31in the direction crossing the first moving rail11along the second moving rail12of the beginning stage side of the transporting path.

As described above, after stacking the unit cell1on the moving body30in the stack section13of the frame10, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the moving body30may be moved by the first driving part31in the direction crossing the first moving rail11along the second moving rail12and moved in the side of the pressure section15of the frame10along the first moving rail11. The movement of the moving body30may be stopped in the pressure section15and the moving body30may be positioned under the press body53of the pressurizing unit50.

In particular, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the operation rod59of the press cylinder57may be operated forward and the press body53of the pressurizing unit50may be moved in the downward direction. Accordingly, the press body53may be moved in the downward direction along the guide rod55of the press frame51. Thus, the press body53may be configured to press the unit cell1on the moving body30. The unit cell1may be pressed by the press body53between the press body53and the supporting plate33of the moving body30.

Thus, when the unit cell1is pressed by the press body53, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the terminal connection part70may be moved by the second driving part75in the direction crossing the first moving rail11and the output terminal71of the terminal connection part70may be connected to the unit cell1. Further, the reaction fluid provided from the reaction fluid supply part60may be supplied to the unit cell1by the second manifold61of the press body53. Accordingly, in the unit cell1, the electrochemical reaction of the reaction fluid by the activation of the membrane-electrode assembly may be progressed and the heat and the electrical energy may be generated. Particularly, the cooling agent provided from the cooling media supply part40may be supplied to the unit cell1by the first manifold35of the supporting plate33of the moving body30to cool the unit cell1as the coolant.

As described above, when the activation state of the unit cell1is maintained and the electrical energy is generated, the output voltage of the unit cell1may be applied to the electronic load equipment73by the terminal connection part70. Accordingly, while monitoring the output voltage of the unit cell1applied to the electronic load equipment73, the controller90may be configured to determine the abnormalities of the unit cell1based on the current-voltage curved line and evaluate the performance of the unit cell1.

Additionally, when the surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly is stored, the controller90may be configured to store the performance evaluation information of the unit cell1. Accordingly, the controller90may be configured to analyze the performance of the unit cell1based on the surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly and the performance evaluation information of the unit cell1and feedback the analysis result to the fuel cell manufacturing process. In order words, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the performance evaluation information of the unit cell1may be compared with the predetermined reference performance based on the surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly obtained from the fuel cell manufacturing process to analyze the performance of the unit cell1.

For example, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the performance evaluation information of the unit cell1satisfies the reference performance based on the surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly, the performance analysis result of the unit cell1according thereto fed back to the fuel cell manufacturing process. In particular, a following process(stack assembly process) of the membrane-electrode assembly produced in the fuel cell manufacturing process may be progressed.

Furthermore, when the performance evaluation information of the unit cell1does not satisfy the reference performance based on the surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly, the performance analysis result of the unit cell1may be fed back to the fuel cell manufacturing process. In particular, the following process (the stack assembly process) of the membrane-electrode assembly produced in the fuel cell manufacturing process may not be progressed and the membrane-electrode assembly may be discarded.

In other words, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the defect determination reference of the membrane-electrode assembly in the fuel cell manufacturing process may be derived as the performance analysis result of the unit cell1based on the surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly obtained in the fuel cell manufacturing process and the performance evaluation information of the unit cell1. Further, after the procedure described above, the supply of the reaction fluid and the coolant for the unit cell1may be blocked and the press body53of the pressurizing unit50and the terminal connection part70may be moved to an original position. In particular, the moving body30may be moved by the first driving part31to the extraction section17of the frame10along the first moving rail11. Thus, the unit cell1on the moving body30may be manually or automatically extracted from the extraction section17.

According to the performance testing apparatus100of the fuel cell according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention as described so far, before configuring the membrane-electrode assembly produced in each lot of the fuel cell manufacturing process as the unit cell1and assembling the unit cell1as the stack, since the performance of the membrane-electrode assembly is sampling and tested, the time aspect and the cost aspect are more efficient, and the time and the cost may be reduced.

Furthermore, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the performance of the unit cell1may be analyzed in conjunction with the surface defect information of the membrane-electrode assembly obtained from the fuel cell manufacturing process and the analysis result may be fed back to the fuel cell manufacturing process such that the quality testing reference of the membrane-electrode assembly in the fuel cell manufacturing process may be obtained.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS