Non-Contact Dimensional Measurements of Bipolar Fuel Cell Plates

摘要

In-process non-contact dimensional measurement is critical to the eventual rapid manufacture of fuel cell plates. This need has been identified by the Department of Energys Hydrogen Program, and by numerous manufacturers of fuel cell plates. To facilitate this effort, NIST has explored the use of noncontact systems for performing dimensional measurements so that manufacturers may perform 100 % part inspection during the manufacturing process. This paper describes a dedicated system developed at NIST for performing non-contact dimensional measurements of fuel cell plates using laser spot triangulation probes. This system utilizes two probes tilted in opposing directions so that each probe can detect one side wall of the channel and some portion of the channel bottom. Procedures have been developed to calibrate the system parameters (tilt angles of the probe, offsets between probes, etc.) so that the data from the two probes can be tied to a single coordinate system. A brief description of the system and preliminary measurement results are presented in this paper.