Product category:
PCB Assembly Equipment and Tools
News Release from: DEK | Subject: Electrochemical fuel cell manufacturing processes
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 06 October 2005
Mass imaging cuts the cost of fuel cells
Novel high-speed manufacturing processes for precision electrochemical fuel cell components enable significant cost-per-kilowatt savings for each of the major fuel cell technologies.
DEK has developed high-speed manufacturing processes for precision electrochemical fuel cell components, enabling significant cost-per-kilowatt savings for each of the major fuel cell technologies The company has leveraged its precision mass imaging techniques, which already deliver high accuracy, high repeatability and high yield at very fine resolutions for electronic thick-film, surface mount and semiconductor assembly applications
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 28 May 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Introducing DEK's high accuracy mass imaging technologies for fuel cell manufacture, Richard Heimsch said: "There is no doubt that fuel cell technology will play a central role in powering the future".
"The high accuracy mass imaging of fuel cell materials brings this new era closer".
"Importantly, the processes and equipment are mature and robust, and benefit from numerous refinements introduced by DEK to maximise productivity for commercial applications".
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DEK's high accuracy mass imaging processes and automated printing machines enable deposition of very thin and uniform layers of materials, with no voiding or pin-holes.
This allows manufacturers to produce components for PEM, solid oxide and direct methanol fuel cells.
Moreover, DEK's highly automated equipment, combine with its fluid dispense technology, allowing continuous high throughput with minimal stoppages.
Control and utilisation of these expensive materials is also much better.
DEK has already perfected handling and deposition technologies that isolate unused material from ambient conditions and minimise the waste discarded after each cycle.
By achieving higher throughput, higher yield and lower waste than alternative techniques, DEK's high accuracy mass imaging solutions lead to significant savings in the cost per unit, and ultimately cut the cost of each kilowatt produced by each of these devices.
Further direct benefits from DEK's dominance of printing for high-volume electronic manufacturing include fast changeovers, allowing one material and stencil set to be changed-over in under two minutes to produce a different fuel cell component.
This facilitates flexible manufacturing, fast turnaround, and high equipment utilisation, helping further reduce the cost per unit produced.
DEK also owns finely developed tooling solutions to hold substrates firmly in position for deposition, and other techniques enabling printing of electrochemical materials onto a variety of flexible or rigid substrates.
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