Coating of Metal Bipolar Plates
Technical Details
Process
Scalable Equipment Solutions
We offer you ideal solutions for cost-efficient and highly productive manufacturing. They are tailored to your current and future requirements.
Our coating systems are based on modular platforms. This design will allow you to scale from research and development to high-voulume production.
Coatings for Metal Strip & Bipolar Plates
To offer you optimal pre- and post-coating solutions, we combine our equipment and PVD technology portfolio.
Pre-coating describes the coating of metal strip straight from the coil and focuses on high productivity at unrivaled low cost.
Post-coating, on the other hand, is a more conservative coating approach. Here, completely welded bipolar plates are coated on both outer surfaces while avoiding any interaction of the coating with the forming and welding process.
A third alternative is mid-coating, which means that anode and cathode halfplates are coated on both sides after the forming process but prior to their assembly into a bipolar plate.
Performance
Coatings for PEM fuel cells
Our carbon-based layer stacks for PEM fuel cell applications are optimized for a low interfacial contact resistance (ICR), good adhesion and high corrosion resistance. The ICR, corrosion performance and durability of these layer stacks are comparable to the gold reference coating and have been qualified by renowned research and testing institutes.
Electrochemical corrosion test with Fraunhofer ISE
VON ARDENNE carbon coatings are corrosion resistant at fuel cell potential. Even after exposure to higher potentials, they show low contact resistance, similar to a gold coating.
Accelerated stress test (AST) with ZBT
In the accelerated stress test, the performance of VON ARDENNE coatings (pre- and post-coating) can also reach the performance of a PVD gold coating.
Coatings for PEM electrolyzers
VON ARDENNE also offers noble metal coatings for PEM electrolyzer applications. These coatings reduce the interfacial contact / through-plane resistance (ICR/TPR) and provide corrosion protection at the anode potential of the electrolysis. They also serve as a barrier against hydrogen embrittlement.
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