Fabrication of metallic bipolar plate for proton exchange membrane fuel cells by rubber pad forming

In this paper, the rubber pad forming process is used to fabricate the metallic bipolar plate for a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, which has multi-array micro-scale flow channels on its surface. The rubber pad forming process has the following advantages: high surface quality and dimensional accuracy of the formed parts, low cost of the die because only one rigid die is required, and high efficiency. The process control parameters (rubber hardness, internal and outer radii, draft angle) of the rubber pad forming are analyzed by the finite element method using the commercial software Abaqus. After that, the rubber pad forming process is used to manufacture a metallic bipolar plate of SS304 stainless steel with perfect flow micro-channels. The results of this effort indicated that the rubber pad forming process is a feasible technique for fabricating the bipolar plates of PEM fuel cells.