High-temperature fuel cell system and method for the production of contacting elements for such a fuel cell system
AssigneeSiemens Energy, Inc.
InventorsRobert Fleck, Harald Landes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A high-temperature fuel cell system includes individual SOFC fuel cells which are in contact with each other for electrically connecting the same in parallel or in series. In at least one embodiment, contacting elements that are suitable for the fuel cell system with a certain flexibility in addition to the required electrical conductivity for continuous operation. The contacting elements between two fuel cells are formed by a metal wire mesh that is advantageously made of nickel. Such nickel wires can be mechanically transformed into a continuous mesh, especially a tube, from which sections having a suitable length can be cut and be provided with the proper shape.
Claims16
A high-temperature fuel-cell system, comprising:
- a plurality of individual fuel cells;
- electrically conductive and flexible contact-making elements electrically connecting the fuel cells in at least one of parallel and in series;
- and
- a continuous metal mesh partially surrounding and contacting each of the contact-making elements,
- wherein at least one of the contact-making elements is formed from a mesh including metallically conductive material, the mesh being in the form of a circumferential, three-dimensional flexible tube, and being uniformly flexible and elastic,
- the at least one contact-making element is elastic in all spatial directions during operation of the high-temperature fuel-cell system.
A method for production of a contact-making element for a high-temperature fuel-cell system, comprising:
- forming the contact-making element, for connecting a plurality of fuel cells of the fuel-cell system, from a mesh of metallic wires, the contact-making element being elastic in all spatial directions during operation of the high-temperature fuel-cell system,
- wherein a continuous flexible tube of the mesh is first produced, and then the continuous flexible tube of mesh is cut into individual parts to length, and
- each of the individual parts is folded and pressed to include a corrugated portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.