Patent ID: 7651808

Claim:
Spacer element for a fuel cell stack that in the assembled state of the fuel cell stack lies adjacent to a first structural part of a fuel cell unit of the fuel cell stack and to a second structural part of a fuel cell unit of the fuel cell stack and holds the first structural part and the second structural part apart from one another, comprising a support wall with an inner side and an outer side and at least one gas through-channel penetrating the support wall from the inner side to the outer side, wherein the support wall of the spacer element comprises at least two material layers, which are stacked one on top of the other along a stacking direction, wherein at least one of the material layers comprises a carrier element, which extends in a peripheral direction of the spacer element, and at least two channel-delimiting elements, which project transversely of the peripheral direction from the carrier element and form lateral boundaries of a portion of a gas through-channel of the spacer element, wherein, in the assembled state of the spacer element, each material layer of the stack defines a layer plane and the same layer plane contains both the carrier element and the at least two channel-delimiting elements.