Pure electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have been the two most discussed new energy vehicle technologies in the industry. In 2021, under the "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" goal, the "hydrogen" is blowing! The rise of the global hydrogen energy industry is accelerating, and the love drama of "hydrogen" cities in various parts of the country is constantly being staged. Favorable policies have been frequently introduced, large enterprises have entered the market one after another, and fuel cell vehicle demonstration city group projects have accelerated hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road. In the process of accelerating industrialization, UW Laser is committed to promoting the further development of domestic fuel cell industry with equipment manufacturing.

Hydrogen fuel cell is a kind of high-efficiency cell without pollution to the environment and can run quietly without noise. Its basic principle is the reverse reaction of electrolytic water, which supplies hydrogen and oxygen to the anode and cathode respectively. After hydrogen diffuses outward through the anode and reacts with the electrolyte, electrons are released to the cathode through external loads. Therefore, vehicles equipped with hydrogen fuel cells have the technical advantages of wide energy sources, high conversion efficiency, fast fuel filling, long driving range, zero emission, and so on.

（Data source: The Orange Group Research Institute）

Hydrogen fuel cell sanitation vehicles, logistics vehicles, wingspan vehicles... The application of freight, high cold, heavy load, and long distance is the common focus of the industry’s exploration and national policy guidance.

Up to now, the list of the first batch of "3+2" city clusters of fuel cell vehicles has been released, and the industry has entered the stage of implementation. According to the data disclosed so far, in the next four years, the target of vehicle promotion in the five major urban agglomerations is 33,010 vehicles.

（Data source: The Orange Group Research Institute）

In addition, according to media statistics, in 2021, the number of newly registered hydrogen energy and fuel cell companies in China will exceed 2,000, reaching a ten-year high, an increase of nearly 70% year-on-year in 2020, and the growth rate has reached the peak of the calendar year.

Complete the “Hydrogen” Matrix

Based on its rich and mature intelligent manufacturing experience in the lithium battery production line, UW Laser has entered the fuel cell equipment industry as early as 2015, and has realized the intelligent manufacturing of hydrogen energy and fuel cells in bipolar plates, membrane electrodes, stacks, etc., with multi-faceted layout of key processes.

At present, UW Laser can provide customers in the hydrogen power industry with stand-alone equipment of cutting, cleaning, packaging, bonding, welding, dispensing and sealing, air tightness testing, etc., and can also provide customers with membrane electrodes, bipolar plates, stacks, and series of non-standard automated production solutions.

2021

1. Upgrade and optimize the efficiency and precision of equipment such as bipolar plate welding machines and automatic stacking welding machines to meet customers' higher requirements for equipment in new processes;

2. Increase the development of inspection/testing equipment, such as air tightness equipment, to help improve customer product yield and performance;

3. Strengthen the research on process technology in the front and rear sections of the production line, improve the custom design capabilities, and then strengthen the flexible intelligent manufacturing and modular design capabilities of "hydrogen" equipment.

Expansion of bipolar plate production line to break through the front and rear processes

The bipolar plate, also known as the collector plate, is one of the important components of the fuel cell. It has the functions of separating fuel and oxidant, preventing gas from permeating, collecting, and conducting current. With high conductivity, designed and processed flow channel, it can evenly distribute the gas to the reaction layer of the electrode for electrode reaction and discharge heat to keep the temperature field of the battery uniform;  It also has the advantages of anti-corrosion; vibration resistance; thin thickness; lightweight; low cost, easy machining, suitable for mass production, and so on.

In 2021, the UW hydrogen fuel cell project team conducted deep technical cultivation for the process characteristics of bipolar plates. It successfully broke through the processes of automatic cutting and automatic cleaning in the front section of the production line, automatic dispensing and sealing in the rear section, automatic air tightness detection, etc. In response to the market demand, we launched the automated production line for bipolar plate sealing ring dispensing, bipolar plate bonding production line, and bipolar plate welding production line, effectively solving the complex sealing process of metal and graphite bipolar plates for fuel cells.

Fuel Cells

Production Line for Bipolar Plate Sealing Ring Dispensing

The manufacture of the hydrogen fuel cell electrode plate requires dispensing glue on the anode plate, and then bonding the cathode plate and the anode plate to form the electrode plate assembly product used in the hydrogen fuel cell.

UW Laser’s seal ring dispensing production line integrates automatic loading and unloading, automatic glue cleaning and glue removal, automatic turning over dispensing (including glue dispensing and sealant dispensing), glue curing, air tightness detection and other functions into one. The dispensing speed reaches 400mm/s, and the dispensing accuracy CPK> 1.33.

It is worth mentioning that the production line can flexibly switch to produce metal bipolar plates and graphite bipolar plates according to the replacement of different fixtures.

Fuel Cells

Production Line for Bipolar Plate Bonding

Focusing on graphite bipolar plates.

UW Laser fuel cell bipolar plate bonding production line is equipped with automatic loading and unloading system, intelligent glue supply system, visual positioning system, precision bonding system, pressure curing system, intelligent glue control system, automatic glue removal system, air tightness. It has multiple functions such as the intelligent detection system, the repeatability of the fit is ≤ ± 0.05mm, and the detection accuracy of the glue type is ± 0.001mm, which effectively solve the problems of the low efficiency and poor consistency of bonding between the anode plate and the cathode plate of the graphite plate of the fuel cell.

Fuel Cells

Welding Production Line for Bipolar Plates

UW Laser focuses on metal bipolar plates that are in high demand for hydrogen energy vehicles.

The welding of metal bipolar plates is difficult, and several factors must be considered, such as sealing, firmness, consistency, durability, flatness, under-welding and over-welding, and the board cannot be deformed after welding.

UW Laser’s automatic welding production line for hydrogen fuel cell bipolar plates is equipped with the company's self-developed automatic welding machine, gas-tight inspection table and other equipment, the welding track is imported into the program for automatic welding, high-speed continuous welding speed, high-reliability tooling clamping design to ensure welding consistency, good gas-tightness of welded products, small welding seam and high strength. At the same time, the configuration of industrial monitoring system, real-time monitoring of the welding process, information parameters can be traced, high production efficiency, good product quality, high qualification rate, and the ability to carry out mass production.

Membrane electrode equipment to achieve "from 0 to 1" breakthrough

The membrane electrode is composed of a proton membrane, a catalytic layer, a diffusion layer, etc., of which the proton exchange membrane with a thickness of only ten microns is called a 'hydrogen fuel cell chip'. The production process involves laser cutting of front-end polyimide PIfilm and proton PEMS film material, carbon paper sheet, vacuum bonding packaging, laser finished product cutting and size inspection.

UW Laser focuses on the field of cutting and bonding and packaging. The membrane electrode laser cutting machine and membrane electrode bonding and packaging equipment developed and designed have the advantages of high degree of automation, convenient processing and high production efficiency.

Membrane Electrodes

Laser Cutting Machine

Fast cutting speed: with self-developed laser, high energy, good beam quality, fast cutting speed and small heat affected zone;

High cutting precision: using precision ball screws and linear guides as transmission elements, the speed can reach 200-1200mm/s, and the repeatability of positioning is ±0.03mm;

Strong stability: multi-axis linkage of the control system, intelligent processing memory, support for breakpoints, and power-down functions.

Easy to operate: controlled by industrial PC, it can meet the requirements of product point, linear trajectory cutting, CAD drawing or teaching method input, automatic cutting process, program can be modified, and operation and modification authority can be set.

It is worth mentioning that there is no need to replace the mold for the processing of the membrane electrode laser cutting machine, so that no matter how complex the product can be processed directly, it is especially suitable for experimental use in universities or scientific research institutions.

Membrane Electrodes

Bonding and packaging machine

• Stand-alone modular design, flexible and convenient;

• High detection accuracy and large memory capacity;

• Flexible manufacturing, strong compatibility;

• High precision dispensing system.

Intelligent upgrade of stack production line

UW Laser’s fuel cell stack assembly production line and some stand-alone equipment further improve the degree of automation. The production line covers stack assembly and pressing equipment, stack automatic strapping welding equipment, stack air tightness testing equipment, and stack peripheral assembly station. , AGV car parking space, etc.

With the functions of parts handling, automatic inspection, automatic stacking, air-tight testing, automatic pressing and data acquisition, automatic uploading and analysis of production quality data, as well as compatibility with the mixed production of multiple product models on the same line and automatic model identification and switching, it is highly functional and stable and can provide a strong guarantee for the consistency and reliability of customers' power stack products.

Critical Stations

Stack air tightness test table

Critical Stations

Stack Automatic Binding and Welding Machine

For fuel cell companies, the upgrade of manufacturing equipment plays a crucial role in improving efficiency and product yield, especially in the stage of mass production. Since its establishment in 2005, UW Laser has accumulated rich and mature intelligent manufacturing experience in the field of new energy batteries, and has established production and manufacturing bases in Jiangsu, Huizhou, Sichuan and other places, which can timely help the national “hydrogen” city demonstration according to market demand.