G. Sjöblom, Alleima, Sandviken, Sweden
In order to facilitate volume production of components to the electrolyzer and fuel cell industry, roll-to-roll (or air-to-air) coating deposition presents a cost-effective path that is suited for mass production. For the past +20 years, the Surface Technology production and R&D units within Alleima have explored coil coatings for various applications, currently focusing exclusively on precoated material for fuel cell and electrolysis applications.
While the precoated route permits higher production rates than the postcoated path, there have been challenges along the way such as forming plates, ensuring coating adhesion, managing a highly variable substrate material, prolonging maintenance intervals and designing a stable strip transport subsystem. When coating metal coils that are several kilometers long, advanced quality control becomes paramount. Much effort has been spent implementing in-line laser marking, topographic surface inspection and thin film metrology as well as configuring an advanced system for signal acquisition. Accurately measuring the interfacial contact resistance of PEM coatings is also essential to our success.
In this talk, the thin film concepts for precoated (austenitic stainless steel and titanium strip) low-temperature PEM bipolar plates (hydrogen fuel cells and electrolyzers) and SOFC interconnects (ferritic grades) will be highlighted, along with electrochemical responses and lessons learned along the journey.