Fuel cell
AssigneesKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation
InventorIsamu Kikuchi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fuel cell including: a fuel cell stack; a pair of end plates holding the fuel cell stack by tightening from both ends; and a plurality of gas manifolds fixed to the fuel cell stack and end plates with the sealing members therebetween to supply fuel and oxidant to each of fuel gas flow paths and oxidant gas flow paths of the fuel cell stack, the fuel cell includes: a gas manifold fixing band including: hold plates installed in contact with a back of the gas manifold; a hold plate connecting part connecting the hold plates installed on the backs of adjacent gas manifolds; and a band-tightening part connecting and tightening both ends of a series of hold plates and the hold plate connecting part.
Claims5
A fuel cell including:
- a fuel cell stack being constituted by stacking a plurality of unit cells formed by an anode electrode and a cathode electrode arranged on each side of an electrolyte, and a separator arranged in contact with each of the anode electrode and the cathode electrode and having a fuel gas flow path and an oxidant gas flow path;
- a pair of end plates for holding the fuel cell stack by tightening from both ends;
- a plurality of gas manifolds being fixed to the fuel cell stack and the end plates with sealing members therebetween to supply fuel and oxidant, respectively, to each of the fuel gas flow paths and the oxidant gas flow paths of the fuel cell stack;
- and
- a gas manifold fixing band comprising:
- hold plates being each installed in contact with each of backs of the gas manifolds;
- a hold plate connecting part for connecting the hold plates installed on the backs of adjacent gas manifolds with each other;
- and
- a band-tightening part for connecting and tightening both ends of a series of the hold plates and the hold plate connecting part,
- wherein, when the gas manifold fixing band is tightened, each of the gas manifolds does not move horizontally against the contact surface with the sealing member, and each of the hold plate moves against each of the gas manifolds, and thereby force that presses each of the gas manifolds toward the fuel cell stack is generated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.