IPG Photonics Corporation
An image of a bipolar plate

Fuel Cells

Your fuel cell partner from R&D to production

Hydrogen fuel cells, an alternative to Li-ion batteries, are used to power a variety of systems including cars, buses, forklifts, portable devices, and other energy storage applications. Regardless of their purpose, fuel cells rely on bipolar plates, and the Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEAs) welded between them, as key components.

Bipolar plates and MEAs are complex and demanding to produce, with hundreds typically required to produce a single fuel cell stack. Between cutting and trimming, drying electrode slurries, surface preparation, and welding together bipolar plate assemblies, laser processing has emerged as the method of choice to achieve high levels of precision and maximize throughput in the manufacturing process.

As a world-leading provider of laser solutions for e-mobility applications, we are equipped with real-world fuel cell manufacturing experience. Of course, every application is different — tell us about your application to learn how IPG laser solutions can optimize your fuel cell production.

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Fuel Cell Laser Applications

Welding Bipolar Plate Assemblies

A critical step in the bipolar plate manufacturing process, welding bipolar plates comes with two major challenges: quality and speed. The laser beam must achieve a very precise depth, typically avoiding full penetration, to create a hermetic seal. Given the high volume of long weld paths, these high-quality seams must also be made very quickly.

Cutting Bipolar Plates

There are a variety of ways to cut bipolar plates including punching, chemical etching, and laser cutting. Laser cutting is often used to trim bipolar plates after the embossing step because it offers high cutting speeds and high edge quality. Achieving burr-free edges is critical to ensure optimal performance in the final fuel cell.

Drying Electrode Layers

A common bottleneck and challenge in the fuel cell production process, drying of the electrode layers that make up the MEA is traditionally performed in convection ovens. Laser drying offers exceptional process improvements, including significantly higher drying speeds, greater energy efficiency, and reduced equipment footprint.

Cutting Membrane Electrode Assemblies

MEA layers must be cut to size to fit into the final bipolar plate assembly. Laser cutting is a flexible, non-contact process that offers excellent speed and edge quality. Laser cutting minimizes burrs and other cutting edge defects, ensuring good performance in the final fuel cell.

Texturing & Cleaning Bipolar Plates

Bipolar plates must often be textured and cleaned to meet demanding quality standards. Laser texturing improves adhesion for protective coatings while laser cleaning removes contaminants. Laser surface processing is a high-speed, non-contact process that can selectively target the desired area with no masking required.

Marking Bipolar Plates

Laser marking makes it easy to maintain traceability during the fuel cell manufacturing process. As a low-maintenance, rapid, and cost-effective marking method, laser marking is ideal for the high-throughput production environments common in fuel cell and bipolar plate manufacturing.

Solutions for Fuel Cell Manufacturing

IPG fiber lasers are synonymous with reliability, efficiency, and precision. Regardless of the application, IPG laser parameters like beam quality, spot shape and size, and power output can be tailored to maximize quality and throughput.

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From process heads purpose-built for specific applications to scanners optimized for welding and cleaning, IPG beam delivery technology is designed to maximize laser performance. Customizable features like optics deliver tailored performance while IPG software makes integration and operation simple.

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Bipolar plate assembly weld testing and inspection represents a significant percentage of fuel cell manufacturing time. It is critical that the welding beam penetrates the thin layers with a small margin of error to ensure a hermetic seal.

IPG real-time laser weld measurement technology directly measures weld depth as the weld is made, eliminating or simplifying time-consuming post-welding inspection steps.

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Bipolar plates must be clamped together prior to welding, which introduces several challenges. The plates must be kept clamped very close together to ensure a hermetic seal in the final weld. This is made especially difficult since bipolar plates are thin and often have a large surface area. It is critical that plates be tightly clamped with even pressure across the assembly, all without warping or damaging the plates.

IPG offers tooling services as part of the application development process for both turnkey and custom systems to provide clamping purpose-built for any bipolar plate design.

IPG offers a variety of fully integrated laser systems specifically configured for e-mobility applications. These systems are available as turnkey products and customized solutions complete with application and process development. Laser systems for e-mobility applications include optimized IPG laser, Class 1 laser safety enclosure, beam delivery and optics, integrated IPG software, high-precision motion, and optional process monitoring technology.

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IPG Application Labs: Discover Your Fuel Cell Solution

IPG partners with fuel cell manufacturers throughout the entire production process from research and development to full-scale manufacturing.

Ready to get started? Send us a sample for evaluation or just tell us about your application and our laser experts will take it from there.

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Solutions for Other E-Mobility Applications

Li-ion Cell Manufacturing

Li-ion Cell Manufacturing

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Battery Packs & Trays

Battery Packs & Trays

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Electric Motors

Electric Motors

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Electronic Components

Power Electronics

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How Can We Help?

Whether you have a project in mind or just want to learn more about laser technologies and solutions for fuel cell manufacturing, an IPG laser expert is ready to help.