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BePPel resistance measurement system for bipolar plates successfully delivered

Once again, a test stand developed at ZBT is leaving the hallowed halls to be used by an industrial company. There it is to measure the resistance of bipolar plates as a quality criterion in series production.

Measuring test stand BePPel: Two variants of the measuring pole enable the precise determination of resistances.

Improved, built, delivered and successfully put into operation: The test stand for measuring electrical resistance from ZBT is now being used to monitor the quality of bipolar plates in series production at a customer's facility.

The test stand is an enhanced version of the basic test stand developed in 2020 as part of the joint project NIP II - BePPel - Bipolar Plates for Fuel Cells and Electrolysers. The new device now enables the industry to carry out a comparative measurement of the electrical resistance of bipolar plates using a standardised procedure. The CE-certified device was successfully set up and commissioned at the customer's site, where it now determines the electrical through-plane resistance of bipolar plates.

Thanks to control via LabView, the test stand allows measurement routines with different contact pressures and different current strengths to be carried out automatically within a very short time. With a maximum contact area of BPP to measuring pole or GDL, contact pressures of up to 40 bar and current densities of up to 5 A/cm² at 20 A current intensity can be applied.

You do not have your own measuring equipment? The ZBT offers reference measurements to manufacturers of bipolar plates and also successfully uses the test stand in current and future R&D projects to characterise bipolar plates and GDL materials.

And it will not stop with these test stands: Already at the beginning of 2023, the construction of another example of this latest generation started for another large bipolar plate producer.

NIP II - BePPel - Bipolar plates for fuel cells and electrolysers
Funding code: 03B11002B
Duration: 1 April 2017 - 31 March 2020
more information

Download BePPel flyer (in German)
Video of the measuring system on YouTube (in German)
Measurement specification for the determination of the electrical through-plane resistance on bipolar plates (in German)

Department Fuel Cells and Stacks

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