CN113675426A

CN113675426A - Combined sealing structure for fuel cell module

Info

Publication number: CN113675426A
Application number: CN202110762253.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王有道; 刘雪婷; 赵小平; 李光伟
Original assignee: Sunrise Power Co Ltd
Current assignee: Sunrise Power Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-07-06
Filing date: 2021-07-06
Publication date: 2021-11-19
Anticipated expiration: 2041-07-06
Also published as: CN113675426B

Abstract

The invention provides a combined sealing structure for a fuel cell module, which comprises a fuel cell end plate, a packaging box body and a manifold; the fuel cell end plate is positioned in the packaging box body; the fuel cell packaging box further comprises an adapter plate, wherein the adapter plate is embedded into the packaging box body, one side end face of the adapter plate is fixedly arranged on the fuel cell end plate, and a medium sealing ring I is arranged between the fuel cell end plate and the adapter plate; a notch is formed in the side face of the adapter plate, a sealing groove is formed between the notch and the chamfer face of the packaging box body, and an IP protective sealing O ring is mounted in the sealing groove; the end face of the other side of the adapter plate is fixedly connected with the manifold, and a medium sealing ring II is arranged between the adapter plate and the manifold. The technical scheme of the invention solves the problem that the existing fuel cell manifold simultaneously meets the conditions of pipe interface direction, IP protection, medium sealing and the like.

Description

Combined sealing structure for fuel cell module

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of fuel cell sealing structures, in particular to a combined sealing structure for a fuel cell module.

Background

The fuel cell module uses hydrogen or other fuel gases and air as reaction gases by means of an internal electric pile, generates electric energy through electrochemical action to supply power to a load, and meanwhile, the whole power supply process also needs cooling liquid to be supplied circularly. The module is generally composed of a module housing, a stack body, a distribution manifold, an inspection controller and other accessories. The process relates to the three aspects of medium sealing of the manifold and the box body, self sealing of the interior of the box body and electric leakage prevention, and particularly when the module is applied to an automobile, most customers require that the waterproof and dustproof safety level of the box body reaches IP 67. Considering the factors such as the working condition temperature of the module, the vehicle-mounted vibration impact, the service life and the like, the module not only needs to meet the requirement of structural strength, but also needs to meet the vehicle-mounted application in the aspects of medium sealing and electric safety.

In the prior art, the fluid medium inside the electric pile is sealed by sealing between the manifold and the end plate of the electric pile, which is usually required by ensuring the protection level of IP67 by sealing between the manifold and the module shell. For the electric pile with the round-mouth medium channel, the sealing requirement of the fuel cell package can be completely met in a radial and axial combined mode. For the electric pile with non-circular opening medium channel, the axial sealing design can not be used, and the manifold can only realize the matching with two groups of radial seals of the shell and the electric pile by means of the fixation of the manifold and the electric pile. This structure has several problems: the manifold and the shell are sealed without any fixed connection; the sealing matching surfaces are more and all parallel, so that the processing precision and the cost are overhigh; the manifold shape limits the distribution of the sealing fixed points and leakage is easy to occur.

Conventionally, the IP67 seal for the fuel cell package and the internal seal of the stack are in the form of a straight circular tube, such as the joint for pipe connection and fuel cell disclosed in patent CN109707925A, which causes three problems: 1. the metal bipolar plate of the vehicle fuel cell is usually rectangular, the section of the three cavities of the medium is mostly polygonal combination, so that the section of the cavity of the medium is changed from polygon to circle; 2. the direction of the pipe joint can only be a straight pipe, because if the pipe joint is a bent pipe, the direction of the finally fixed and fastened bent pipe cannot be determined, so that the actual layout structure of the fuel cell in a vehicle is limited, and the fuel cell is particularly limited to be used on a passenger vehicle with small layout space; 3. the pipe fastening mode can increase processing cost or batch production difficulty, if adopt axial seal then machining precision requirement higher, if adopt the form of sealed screw thread, can be because of twining the sticky tape, scribbling the technological requirement of glue, lead to in the mass production process, artifical unable the being substituted.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the technical problems in the prior art, the present invention provides a combined sealing structure for a fuel cell module. The invention adopts a combined structure of a standard component O ring + a triangular sealing groove and a special-shaped rubber wire + a radial sealing groove, wherein the O ring + the triangular sealing groove ensures the safety protection of IP67, and the special-shaped rubber wire + the radial sealing groove ensures the medium exchange sealing of the fuel cell.

The technical means adopted by the invention are as follows:

a unitized seal structure for a fuel cell module includes a fuel cell end plate, an enclosure box, and a manifold; the fuel cell end plate is positioned in the packaging box body; the fuel cell packaging box further comprises an adapter plate, wherein the adapter plate is embedded into the packaging box body, one side end face of the adapter plate is fixedly arranged on the fuel cell end plate, and a medium sealing ring I is arranged between the fuel cell end plate and the adapter plate;

a notch is formed in the side face of the adapter plate, a sealing groove is formed between the notch and the chamfer face of the packaging box body, and an IP protective sealing O ring is mounted in the sealing groove;

the end face of the other side of the adapter plate is fixedly connected with the manifold, and a medium sealing ring II is arranged between the adapter plate and the manifold.

Further, the fuel cell end plate is provided with a sealing groove I for mounting the medium sealing ring I.

Further, the adapter plate is fixedly mounted on the fuel cell end plate 1 through an adapter plate fixing screw.

Further, the manifold is fixedly mounted to the adapter plate by manifold set screws.

Further, the adapter plate is provided with a seal groove II for installing the medium seal ring II.

Furthermore, a triangular sealing groove is formed between the gap on the side surface of the adapter plate and the 45-degree chamfer surface of the packaging box body.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following advantages:

1. compared with the conventional fuel cell module packaging structure, the combined sealing structure for the fuel cell module provided by the invention introduces the adapter plate, and the adapter plate respectively completes two sealing of an IP protection channel and a medium exchange channel with the module packaging box body and the electric pile under the condition of no manifold, so that the difficulty that the conventional fuel cell manifold simultaneously meets a plurality of harsh conditions such as a pipe interface direction, the IP protection channel, the medium sealing channel and the like is solved, and the manifold can be flexibly designed according to the system requirements.

2. Compared with the conventional radial seal, axial seal and the seal structure combined with the radial seal of the adapter plate and the fuel cell end plate, the combined seal structure for the fuel cell module, provided by the invention, has the advantages that the combination of the adapter plate and the radial seal of the fuel cell end plate and the triangular seal structure of the adapter plate and the packaging box body reduces the tolerance requirement of the packaging assembly of the fuel cell module and the machining precision requirement of related key parts.

For the above reasons, the present invention can be widely applied to the field of fuel cell sealing structures.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a composite seal structure according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an exploded view of the composite seal structure of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic end view of the adapter plate and the manifold according to the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic end view of the connection between the adapter plate and the fuel cell end plate according to the present invention.

In the figure: 10. a fuel cell end plate; 20. packaging the box body; 30. a medium sealing ring I; 40. an IP protective sealing O ring; 50. an adapter plate; 51. a manifold fixing position; 60. a medium sealing ring II; 70. the adapter plate fixes the screw; 80. a manifold; 81. a manifold tube interface; 90. the manifold fixes the screw.

Detailed Description

It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict. The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. The following description of at least one exemplary embodiment is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

It is noted that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of exemplary embodiments according to the invention. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, and it should be understood that when the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising" are used in this specification, they specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, devices, components, and/or combinations thereof, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

The relative arrangement of the components and steps, the numerical expressions and numerical values set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present invention unless specifically stated otherwise. Meanwhile, it should be understood that the sizes of the respective portions shown in the drawings are not drawn in an actual proportional relationship for the convenience of description. Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail but are intended to be part of the specification where appropriate. Any specific values in all examples shown and discussed herein are to be construed as exemplary only and not as limiting. Thus, other examples of the exemplary embodiments may have different values. It should be noted that: like reference numbers and letters refer to like items in the following figures, and thus, once an item is defined in one figure, further discussion thereof is not required in subsequent figures.

In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the orientation or positional relationship indicated by the directional terms such as "front, rear, upper, lower, left, right", "lateral, vertical, horizontal" and "top, bottom", etc., are generally based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and are used for convenience of description and simplicity of description only, and in the absence of any contrary indication, these directional terms are not intended to indicate and imply that the device or element so referred to must have a particular orientation or be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope of the present invention: the terms "inner and outer" refer to the inner and outer relative to the profile of the respective component itself.

Spatially relative terms, such as "above … …," "above … …," "above … …," "above," and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one device or feature's spatial relationship to another device or feature as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if a device in the figures is turned over, devices described as "above" or "on" other devices or configurations would then be oriented "below" or "under" the other devices or configurations. Thus, the exemplary term "above … …" can include both an orientation of "above … …" and "below … …". The device may be otherwise variously oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.

It should be noted that the terms "first", "second", and the like are used to define the components, and are only used for convenience of distinguishing the corresponding components, and the terms have no special meanings unless otherwise stated, and therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be construed as being limited.

Example 1

As shown in fig. 1 to 4, the present invention provides a unitized seal structure for a fuel cell module, comprising a fuel cell end plate 10, a package case 20, and a manifold 80; the fuel cell end plate 10 is located inside the enclosure case 20;

the fuel cell end plate 10, the adapter plate 50 and the medium sealing ring I30 are matched with each other to form a radial surface seal, and the radial surface seal is used as a first medium seal of an internal and external exchange channel of a stack medium;

a notch is formed in the side face of the adapter plate 50, a sealing groove is formed between the notch and the chamfer face of the packaging box body 20, and an IP protective sealing O ring 40 is installed in the sealing groove to form IP protective sealing;

the end face of the other side of the adapter plate 50 is fixedly connected with the manifold 80, a medium sealing ring II 60 is arranged between the adapter plate 50 and the manifold 80, and the adapter plate 50, the manifold 80 and the medium sealing ring II 60 are matched with each other to form a second medium seal of an internal and external exchange channel of a stack medium.

Further, the fuel cell end plate 10 is provided with a seal groove i for mounting the media seal ring i 30.

Further, the adapter plate 50 is fixedly mounted to the fuel cell end plate 10 by an adapter plate fixing screw 70.

Further, the manifold 80 is fixedly mounted to the adapter plate 50 by manifold set screws 90.

Further, the adapter plate 50 is provided with a sealing groove II for mounting the medium sealing ring II 60.

Further, a triangular sealing groove is formed between the notch of the side surface of the adapter plate 50 and the 45-degree chamfer surface of the packaging box body 20, and after the adapter plate 50 is fixed to the cell end plate 10, the triangular sealing formed by matching completely meets the protection and sealing requirements of the fuel cell packaging IP 67.

Further, the adapter plate 50 is installed between the fuel cell end plate 10 and the manifold 80, and an opening for communicating the opening of the fuel cell end plate 10 with the opening of the manifold 80 is provided on the adapter plate 50.

In the combined sealing structure of the present invention, the adapter plate 50 and the fuel cell end plate 10 form a first seal for medium exchange, which is a radial seal, and the adapter plate 50 and the enclosure box 20 form an IP67 grade protection seal, which is a triangular seal; the first medium exchange seal is a main seal, and when the adapter plate 50 is fixedly mounted on the fuel cell end plate 10 through the adapter plate fixing screw 70, the main seal is determined to be firm and reliable; meanwhile, the adapter plate 50 is fixed, so that the adapter plate can press the IP protective sealing O ring 40 along the 45-degree chamfer surface of the packaging box body 20 to form a secondary seal. The sealing surfaces of the two seals have an angle of 45 degrees, so that the condition that the same part (adapter plate 50) is respectively matched and sealed with a plurality of fixed parts in the same direction can not occur, and the requirement on assembly tolerance is greatly reduced.

The invention adopts a combined form of radial sealing and 45-degree triangular sealing, and the processing precision of sealing parts can be greatly reduced. Although the combination of radial sealing and axial sealing can also reduce the requirement of assembly tolerance, the requirement of machining precision of parts is high, and the requirement of the appearance of the parts (approximate to a circle) is also met. Taking a sealing rubber line with the thickness of 3.55mm as an example, the processing precision of the sealing groove of the part combined by the radial sealing and the 45-degree triangular sealing is 0.2mm, but the processing precision of the sealing groove of the part combined by the radial sealing and the axial sealing is 0.05 mm.

The combined sealing structure of the invention introduces the adapter plate 50 into the combined structure of the conventional fuel cell end plate 10, the packaging box body 20 and the manifold 80, when the adapter plate 50 is fixed, the fuel cell packaging reaches the IP67 protection level, and the manifold 80 has no IP67 sealing requirement; the manifold 80 can completely not consider the internal structure of the fuel cell, and only needs to be capable of being butted with the adapter plate 50, the direction of the manifold pipe interface 81 of the manifold 80 is not limited by the structural influence of the stack end plate 10, and the interface direction requirement of the fuel cell system can be met.

The specific assembling process is as shown in fig. 2, the medium seal ring i 30 is placed in the seal groove i, the IP protection seal O ring 40 is sleeved on a notch of the side wall of the adapter plate 50, the adapter plate 50 with the IP protection seal O ring 40 is fixed to the fuel cell end plate 10 by using the adapter plate fixing screw 70, the medium seal ring ii 60 is placed in the seal groove ii, and the manifold 80 is mounted on the adapter plate 50 by using the manifold fixing screw 90.

In the invention, after the adapter plate 50 is fixed on the fuel cell end plate 10, the first medium seal and the IP67 protective seal are simultaneously installed, wherein the medium seal pressure is far greater than the IP67 protective seal pressure, the medium seal is the adapter plate main seal, and the IP protection is the secondary seal. The fixed point distribution of the adapter plate does not need to consider the interference of factors such as manifold pipe orifices and the like, and the number, the position and the fastening torque of the fixing screws need to be considered so as to ensure the deformation pressure of the rubber wires of the primary seal and the secondary seal.

In the present invention, the manifold pipe interface 81 of the manifold 80 is not limited to the direction in the schematic diagram, and the direction thereof may be changed according to actual requirements, and the manifold fixing position 51 on the adapter plate 50 may be adjusted.

The stack medium in the invention can only contact the stack end plate 10, the adapter plate 50, the manifold 80, the medium sealing ring I30 and the medium sealing ring II 60, all the materials are non-conductive engineering plastics or rubber products, and the requirements of electric leakage prevention and electric shock prevention of the fuel cell are completely met.

The adapter plate is introduced to be used as an intermediate structural member for medium exchange between the fuel cell and the outside, and the end face of the adapter plate is directly fixedly assembled with the fuel cell to form a radial sealing structure; meanwhile, the side face of the adapter plate is matched with the packaging box body to form a triangular sealing structure. Relative to the shaft seal, the machining precision of the triangular seal structure and the radial seal structure can be reduced by one order of magnitude, and the triangular seal structure and the radial seal structure also avoid the problem that the machining precision of common two parallel radial seals is high. Due to the introduction of the structure of the adapter plate, the outlet direction of a fuel cell medium pipe joint or a manifold cannot be limited, and the flexible design requirement is met. The manifold, the adapter plate and the fuel cell end plate are all made of insulating engineering plastics, so that the situation of breakdown and electric leakage is avoided. The whole sealing structure can be connected by adopting the counter bores and the bolts, and the requirements of sealing, vibration resistance, impact resistance and insulating property of the pile module can be completely met.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above examples are only intended to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, but not to limit it; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some or all of the technical features may be equivalently replaced; and the modifications or the substitutions do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions depart from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A unitized seal structure for a fuel cell module includes a fuel cell end plate, an enclosure box, and a manifold; the fuel cell end plate is positioned in the packaging box body; the fuel cell packaging box is characterized by further comprising an adapter plate, wherein the adapter plate is embedded into the packaging box body, one side end face of the adapter plate is fixedly installed on the fuel cell end plate, and a medium sealing ring I is arranged between the fuel cell end plate and the adapter plate;

2. The composite seal structure for fuel cell modules according to claim 1, wherein said fuel cell end plate is provided with a seal groove i for mounting said media seal ring i.

3. The composite seal structure for a fuel cell module according to claim 1, wherein said adapter plate is fixedly mounted to said fuel cell end plate 1 by an adapter plate fixing screw.

4. The unitized seal structure for a fuel cell module according to claim 1, wherein said manifold is fixedly mounted to said adapter plate by manifold set screws.

5. The composite seal structure for a fuel cell module as claimed in claim 1, wherein said adapter plate is provided with a seal groove ii for mounting said media seal ring ii.

6. The composite seal structure for a fuel cell module of claim 1, wherein a triangular seal groove is formed between the adapter plate side notch and the 45 ° chamfered face of the package case.