Patent ID: 8728682

Claim:
A fuel cell comprising: one or more membrane-electrode assemblies each formed by joining a polymer electrolyte membrane and electrodes; two or more separators disposed to sandwich the membrane-electrode assembly; only one first quadrangular end plate and second quadrangular end plate, each of which includes an electrode facing region facing the electrode and an annular outer edge region surrounding the electrode facing region and having openings, and which are disposed to sandwich a stack structure including said one or more membrane-electrode assemblies and said two or more separators; a first current collector disposed between one end of the stack structure and an inner surface of said first end plate; a second current collector disposed between an other end of the stack structure and an inner surface of said second end plate; a plurality of fastening rods which extend in a stack direction of the stack structure so as to penetrate through the openings of said first end plate and the openings of said second end plate; a plurality of first elastic members disposed between the inner surface of said first end plate and said first current collector; a plurality of second elastic members disposed between the inner surface of said second end plate and said second current collector; and fastening portions which are disposed at both ends of said plurality of fastening rods and are able to adjust fastening forces applied by said plurality of fastening rods to the stack structure sandwiched between said first and second end plates, wherein: said fastening rods are disposed at positions within the outer edge region that are rotationally symmetric with respect to a center of the electrode such that each of said fastening rods is disposed on one of perpendicular bisectors of sides of the electrode to correspond to one of the sides; said first elastic members are disposed in the electrode facing region of said first end plate and between adjacent fastening rods of said plurality of fastening rods; and one or more first elastic members are disposed on a straight line passing through fastening rods on immediately adjacent sides of side first end plate.