World premiere at f-cell 2022 in Stuttgart:

Dresden, Müllheim, Tübingen, 28 September 2022

For the first time, the German Fuel Cell Cooperation (GFC) will present a highly productive, interface-tuned complete line for the production of metallic bipolar plates at the f-cell 2022. The event will take place in Stuttgart from 4 to 5 October 2022 and the GFC will exhibit at booth 2D17 in hall 2.

y com­bin­ing their re­spec­tive com­pe­ten­cies, the three com­pa­nies VON ARDENNE (Dres­den), Weil Tech­nol­ogy (Müll­heim) and ZELT­WANGER (Tübin­gen), as part­ners in the GFC, of­fer man­u­fac­tur­ers of fuel cell sys­tems and elec­trolyz­ers fully com­pre­hen­sive know-how for the ef­fi­cient pro­duc­tion of metal­lic bipo­lar plates.

The con­cept of a fully co­or­di­nated pro­duc­tion line plays a pi­o­neer­ing role in the mar­ket. And, with an an­nual pro­duc­tion ca­pac­ity of sev­eral mil­lion bipo­lar plates, it serves the cur­rent needs of the in­dus­try.

The long-stand­ing ex­per­tise of the three me­chan­i­cal en­gi­neer­ing com­pa­nies cov­ers all process steps. And the joint de­vel­op­ment and care­ful co­or­di­na­tion of the line con­cept en­ables smooth tran­si­tions at the in­ter­faces of the in­di­vid­ual pro­duc­tion steps. To this end, the line processes pre-stamped half-plates made of stain­less steel or ti­ta­nium. In a first step, these are welded into bipo­lar plates, then leak-tested and given a PVD coat­ing to func­tion­al­ize the sur­face.

With their ex­ten­sive joint knowl­edge of the com­plex value chain and high de­gree of spe­cial­iza­tion in the sub-processes, the three GFC com­pa­nies de­velop a cus­tomized pro­duc­tion line to­gether with their cus­tomers. These spec­i­fi­ca­tion-com­pli­ant pro­duc­tion lines op­ti­mally in­te­grate the var­i­ous cus­tomer-spe­cific ap­proaches.

VON AR­DENNE con­tributes its ex­per­tise in the con­struc­tion of vac­uum coat­ing sys­tems used to func­tion­al­ize sur­faces of metal strip (pre-coat­ing) or bipo­lar plates (post-coat­ing). Weil Tech­nol­ogy is an ex­pe­ri­enced sup­plier of equip­ment in the field of laser cut­ting and laser weld­ing of metal­lic bipo­lar plates. ZELT­WANGER pro­vides the equip­ment for au­to­mated as­sem­bly and test­ing processes as well as leak test­ing into the pro­duc­tion chain.

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Conference presentations of the GFC at the f-cell

Tues­day, 4 Oc­to­ber 2022

"Automation and manufacturing technology for fuel cell production"
Flo­rian Weil, Di­vi­sion Man­ager De­vel­op­ment & In­no­va­tion, Weil Tech­nol­ogy
2:30-3:30 p.m.

Presentations in the f-Cell Speaker Corner

Wednesday, 5 Oktober 2022

"Laser Welding of Metallic Bipolar Plates: Robust, Modular and Scalable"
Har­ald Lieb­hart, Weil Tech­nol­ogy GmbH
11:30-11:40 a.m.

"From Lab to Fab: Scalable Thin-Film Coating Solutions for Bipolar Plates"
Susann Puppe, VON ARDENNE GmbH
11:40-11:50 a.m. 

"Ensuring Leak Tightness of Fuel Cells and Electrolyzers"
Patrick Reich, Zeltwanger Group
11:50-12:00 a.m.

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About VON ARDENNE

As a ma­chine builder and so­lu­tion provider, Weil Tech­nol­ogy sup­ports the re­al­iza­tion of new pro­duc­tion processes in sheet metal pro­cess­ing as well as the op­ti­miza­tion, au­toma­tion and sus­tain­abil­ity of ex­ist­ing ones.

The com­pa­ny's core com­pe­tence is ma­chines for sheet metal pro­cess­ing by laser weld­ing and cut­ting. Weil Tech­nol­ogy can look back on more than 30 years of ex­pe­ri­ence in this field. At the com­pa­ny's head­quar­ters in Müll­heim in south­ern Baden, around 220 em­ploy­ees de­velop and man­u­fac­ture cus­tomer-spe­cific con­cepts and sys­tems.

About Weil Technology

Als Maschinenbauer und Lösungsanbieter unterstützt Weil Technology dabei, neue Produktionsprozesse in der Blechbearbeitung zu realisieren sowie bestehende zu optimieren, automatisieren und nachhaltiger zu gestalten.

Kernkompetenz des Unternehmens sind Maschinen für die Blechbearbeitung per Laserschweißen und -schneiden. Hier blickt Weil Technology auf über 30 Jahre Erfahrung zurück. Am Unternehmenssitz im südbadischen Müllheim entwickeln und fertigen rund 220 Mitarbeiter*innen kundenspezifische Konzepte und Anlagen. 

About ZELTWANGER

The com­pa­nies of the ZELT­WANGER Group are among the tech­nol­ogy and in­no­va­tion lead­ers in the de­vel­op­ment and man­u­fac­ture of mod­ern sys­tems for au­toma­tion, leak test­ing, laser ap­pli­ca­tions and ther­mal man­age­ment.

For the e-mo­bil­ity in­dus­try, ZELT­WANGER of­fers di­verse so­lu­tions along the en­tire value chain for the pro­duc­tion and qual­ity as­sur­ance of bat­tery sys­tems, fuel cells and elec­tric mo­tors.

The mod­u­larly de­signed de­vices and sys­tems for leak and func­tion test­ing are eas­ily ex­pand­able by us­ing plug-and-play mea­sure­ment mod­ules, which is unique on the mar­ket. In ad­di­tion, ZELT­WANGER de­vel­ops and im­ple­ments high-end au­toma­tion sys­tems such as stack­ing sys­tems for the fuel cell in­dus­try.