From January 10 to 12, the "2021 Potentiin Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Industry Annual Meeting" hosted by TrendBank and hosted by Potentiin Energy Chain was officially held at Sofitel Shanghai Sheshan East. At the meeting, Yang Haijun, executive deputy general manager of Shandong Rubik's New Energy Technology Co., LTD., brought the report "Development trend of membrane electrode and molded bipolar plate preparation process".

Here is the full text of the speech:

Thank you very much for Potential Yin and General Manager Tang, so that we can communicate with experts and industry colleagues, today I share with you the theme is "membrane electrode and molded bipolar plate preparation process development trend".

Founded in 2015, Rubik's New Energy officially transformed into the field of hydrogen fuel cells from 2017, mainly providing services including research and development, design and manufacturing of fuel cell equipment and production lines for membrane electrodes, bipolar plates, and stack engine systems.

In addition, in the BOP components, the voltage patrol and humidifier are designed to cooperate with our industrial customers.

The company's core technical team is the first group of domestic fuel cell research and development team, experienced, more than 100 employees, three doctors, ten masters, bachelor degree of more than 50%.

The company has two bases in Liaocheng, Shandong Province and Wuhan, Hubei Province, with a total plant area of 10,000 square meters. Shandong Liaocheng Company has been in the process of industrial and commercial change, in the first quarter of 2022 we will complete the relocation to Wuxi, we also welcome you to visit our Wuxi base.

In terms of patents, Rubik's Cube has been authorized more than 130, and its main customers include more than 20 mainstream enterprises in the industry, such as Yihuatong, Shanghai Shenli, and State Power Investment. BOP's humidifiers also cooperate with more than a dozen leading enterprises in the industry.

Starting from 2020, the policies of central to local industries and industries have been introduced, and the hydrogen fuel cell industry is also rapidly heating up, and the industrial process is also accelerating, which makes many industry customers have great demand for localized equipment.

However, I found that in the fuel cell industry, there are several status quo in the preparation process

First, the product upgrade iteration is quite frequent, including the technical route, the material of the bipolar plate has not been finalized;

The second is the process, the stage we are in is not the same, there are single-machine pure artificial, as well as semi-automatic and automatic;

Third, the quality control, system process is not perfect, the entire process of online and offline related control parameters and detection means are not perfect.

But I believe that in the future, we can form a relatively standard and unified mainstream technical route on the independence of equipment to promote the realization of industrialization.

The common preparation process for membrane electrodes includes the pulping of the cathode and anode - separately applied - and then fitted to the border, which is the so-called five-in-one package. After finishing the die cutting of the hole position, the carbon paper is pasted to form seven in one, and finally the size and air tightness detection are completed, and the finished film electrode is formed.

With the advancement of the industry, in the several major processes of membrane electrodes, we will also make corresponding changes in the development of these processes.

First of all, before mass production, most of them are using some small POTS of slurry to do development, using ultrasonic stirring to achieve the purpose of medium and low viscosity nano dispersion to achieve mixing; After mass production, the viscosity of the paste will increase, which may be achieved by high-speed mechanical shearing or ball milling.

In terms of coating, there are different process types adapted to different production scales

In the research and development and test stage, the domestic use of ultrasonic spraying, but its production efficiency is relatively low, more suitable for the needs of the pilot phase.

If the customer's product specifications and models are more, and the design is not completely shaped, it is recommended that the scraper coating equipment, including continuous and intermittent, is more cost-effective.

However, if the customer's product has been fully developed and verified, and the design has been finalized, it is recommended to use this slit extrusion coating method, but its cost and cost are relatively highest.

In terms of molding, the use of 200 to 600 tons of press for stamping to achieve substrate forming has been relatively mature, so Rubik's Cube is now developing the next generation of roller pressing combined with special knife die to form a more efficient way.

In terms of infiltration, a process that takes the longest time in the production process of bipolar plates, Rubik's Cube is currently jointly developing with a relatively top resin manufacturer in China to achieve a new process of rapid infiltration and low emission, which is expected to be launched in the middle of this year.

In terms of bonding sealing, there are currently prefabricated sealing rings and on-site dispensing molding methods. However, we believe that direct field placement molding may be the next generation of sealing and production efficiency is a better process.

To summarize, for the development and production of membrane electrodes

At present, most customers are still based on multi-variety or large-scale trial production, so we recommend spraying or transfer printing, or scraper transfer coating for membrane electrode to do CCM;

On the fitting package, we recommend the use of single-machine semi-automatic semi-fitting process, which will have a higher stock utilization rate, better flexibility, and is easy to switch between different models.

For customers whose size is relatively single or whose design has been finalized, we recommend the combination of slit extrusion and direct coating or one side of direct coating and the other side of transfer printing, and then the final fitting of this piece is produced by rolling material, so that the utilization rate will be higher, the degree of automation and product consistency are more guaranteed, we also provide technical services for special production line solutions.

In terms of trial production investment, we suggest that we can first invest in the trial production of some products or samples, and then go to the batch line after sufficient testing and verification. Rubik's Cube can provide proofing services, and can also provide the design and planning including the production line of pilot batch production equipment.

Because the entire industry or industry development is currently in the early stage, our company is not all the equipment is self-made, we need industry colleagues to work together with us to progress, as soon as possible to realize the industrialization of hydrogen fuel cells.

Thank you for listening. Thank you.