The new coating system, INLINECOATER™ IC2000, is now on display for customers at Impact Coatings in Linköping, Sweden, while undergoing process qualification for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell metal plates ahead of product launch.

The new coating is built upon proven architecture, and can coat up to 3m PEM fuel cell plates per year, depending on parameters such as plate size, coating type and thickness, working days and shifts.

The IC2000 system is compact, with a footprint of only 6.2 x 2.2 meters. It has fewer critical components, such as vacuum pumps and power supplies, than traditional large scale industry solutions. Installing additional coating systems is easy as production scales up, resulting in high reliability through redundancy and cost-efficient volume manufacturing of the critical metal plate components.

Hydrogen is one of the key solutions to phase out fossil fuels in society, including in the energy and mobility sectors. This means that demand for manufacturing volumes of hydrogen fuel cells and electrolysers has increased and is expected to continue growing rapidly during this decade.

Automotive OEMs and major component suppliers are among the leaders scaling the new hydrogen industry, primarily using proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells for transport applications. To achieve optimal stack performance, separator plates of metal with efficient coatings are in focus as core components for both fuel cells and electrolysers.

Since 2018, Impact Coatings’ Coating Service Centre and several fuel cell manufacturers operate the INLINECOATER™ IC500 system for fuel cell metal plate coatings. The system produces a high-quality coating using a compact platform, with short cycle times that allow easy integration in automated production.

Impact Coatings’ fuel cell coating development starting over fifteen years ago. The company’s Ceramic MAXPHASE™ noble metal-free coating for PEM fuel cell plates has almost a decade of field qualification in automotive applications. Today, the company continues its work with customers on coating development to meet coming market needs for both fuel cells and electrolysers.

The company supports hydrogen industry customers with scalable production solutions for metal plate coatings, including coating services and coating technology and systems for volume production.

Leveraging on experience from its Coating Service Center in Linköping, the company is currently preparing launch of a second Coating Service Center in Shanghai.

To read our preview piece on next week’s f-cell exhibition, which will host 126 exhibitors, click here.