Patent ID: 8357469

Claim:
An article comprising: a substrate having: a first surface and a second surface, the first surface placed in planar contact with a negative current collector sheet via an adhesive layer; one or more edges so that at least one edge of the substrate is in planar contact with at least one edge of a negative pasting frame member; a thermal degradation temperature; and a plurality of openings having straight walls formed therein, wherein the plurality of openings are filled with an electrically conductive material that undergoes a phase transformation at a temperature that is below the thermal degradation temperature of the substrate so that at an operating temperature of a battery assembly containing the bipolar battery laminate structure that is below the phase transformation temperature the substrate has an electrically conductive path via the electrically conductive material between the first surface and the second surface of the substrate and at a temperature that is above the phase transformation temperature, the electrically conductive material undergoes a phase transformation that disables electrical conductivity via the electrically conductive path; a positive current collector sheet, placed in planar contact with the second surface of the substrate via a second adhesive layer; wherein the article is useful as a bipolar plate in the battery assembly; wherein the electrically conductive material is a solder paste that comprises a mixture of two or more of lead, tin, nickel, zinc, lithium, antimony, cooper, bismuth, indium or silver.