Patent ID: 7368199

Claim:
A fuel cell stack comprising: a box-shaped casing; and a stack body provided in said box-shaped casing, said stack body being formed by stacking a plurality of unit cells in a stacking direction, said unit cells each including an electrolyte electrode assembly and a pair of separators sandwiching said electrolyte electrode assembly, said electrolyte electrode assembly including a pair of electrodes, and an electrolyte interposed between said electrodes, said casing comprising: rectangular end plates provided at opposite ends of said stack body in the stacking direction; and a plurality of side plates provided on sides of said stack body, said plurality of side plates comprising short side plates coupled to short sides of said end plates and long side plates coupled to long sides of said end plates, wherein the short side plates are thicker than the long side plates such that all sides of said end plates have substantially the same deflection in the stacking direction to form a surface pressure distribution that is uniform in the stacking direction in each of said plurality of unit cells.