Effect of stamping load variation on deformation behaviour of stainless steel thin plate with microchannel

A thin plate like a bipolar plate for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell is one of the core parts for improving the power density in a fuel cell. Stainless steel has excellent characteristics in terms of electrical resistivity, density, and thermal conductivity. Furthermore, stainless steel, instead of graphite, is used as a bipolar plate because it is cheaper and easier to machine. Therefore, in this study, a stainless steel alloy is selected as the ideal material for a bipolar plate. In this article, the results of feasibility experiments are presented; these experiments are performed with the aim of developing fuel cells using stainless steel bipolar plates with multiple channels. In this investigation, a dynamic load was applied, and the formability of microchannels was estimated with different punch pressures and die roundness, using a thin sheet metal of SUS304 with thicknesses of 0.3 and 0.1mm. In the case of the die roundness of 0.1mm, the formability is optimized with a sine wave dynamic load that has 90kN of maximum pressure and five cycles of punch movement. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed manufacturing technique for fabricating bipolar plates.