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Advanced air cooled fuel cell gets equally advanced assembly line - WMG Partnership with Intelligent Energy

WMG at the University of Warwick are partnering with clean energy solution company Intelligent Energy to help develop manufacturing technologies via an advanced proof of process assembly line to significantly reduce the time to manufacture Intelligent Energy’s latest advanced air cooled fuel cell design, leading to a blueprint for a future fully integrated assembly and test line.

The 3 year, €3.5 million EU funded DIGIMAN programme brings together WMG at the University of Warwick, Intelligent Energy, Freudenberg, Pretexo, CEA Tech, and Toyota Motor Europe in a project pulling together the latest techniques in digital manufacture and automation in stack production processes to create a state of the art fuel cell manufacturing process for zero emission vehicles. The fuel cell’s use of air cooling gives the fuel cell significant efficiencies – particularly by reducing the weight of the device.

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Robert Harrison, Professor of Automation Systems at WMG at the University of Warwick said:

“The project partners bring unparalleled levels of hydrogen know-how from automotive OEMs and recognised leaders in fuel cell and component development and manufacture.”

“WMG will apply its assembly automation research and knowledge to significantly reduce the projected cell assembly cycle times for the new fuel cell by over 75%.

“We will also assist in the implementation of digital manufacturing techniques that will play a crucial quality control role in the fuel cell manufacturing process.”

The project will help develop technologies for large-scale production capability in order to meet expected future requirements of more than 50,000 fuel cell stacks by 2020.

Intelligent Energy’s Head of Manufacturing, Richard Peart said:

“Hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles are available now, but to continue to drive customer adoption, we need to ensure future fuel cell stacks are robustly industrialised and remain cost competitive in the future. The programme will bring significant opportunity to further develop Intelligent Energy’s proprietary Air Cooled fuel cell architecture. Additionally, as Intelligent Energy’s Air Cooled fuel cell stack technology operates across multiple products and applications, the project will benefit commercialisation within multiple market sectors, including stationary power and drones.”

Funding for the project is being provided by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) which is a unique public private partnership supporting research, technological development and demonstration activities in fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies in Europe. Its aim is to accelerate the market introduction of these technologies, realising their potential as an instrument in achieving a carbon-lean energy system. The three members of the FCH JU are the European Commission, the fuel cell and hydrogen industries represented by Hydrogen Europe and the research community represented by Research Grouping N.ERGHY.


Notes for Editors:

· About Intelligent Energy -Intelligent Energy Holdings plc delivers clean energy solutions for the distributed energy, diesel replacement, automotive and aerial drone markets. Working with international companies, Intelligent Energy aims to embed its fuel cell stack technology into applications across its target market sectors.

With its principal facility and headquarters in Loughborough, UK, the company also operates in Japan, India, China, Singapore, France and the US. Intelligent Energy Holdings plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: IEH.L).


WMG: www.wmg.warwick.ac.uk

WMG was established by Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya in 1980 in order to reinvigorate UK manufacturing through the application of cutting edge research and effective knowledge transfer. WMG is a world leading research and education group and an academic department of the University of Warwick. WMG has pioneered an international model for working with industry, commerce and public sectors and holds a unique position between academia and industry. The Group’s strength is to provide companies with the opportunity to gain a competitive edge by understanding a company’s strategy and working in partnership with them to create, through multidisciplinary research, ground-breaking products, processes and services.

 

CEA Tech - LITEN: http://liten.cea.fr/cea-tech/liten/

 

Pretexo: http://www.pretexo.com

 

Toyota Motor Europe: https://www.toyota-europe.com/

 

Freudenberg: http://www.freudenberg.com/


11 May 2017

For further information please contact:

Lisa Barwick, Head of Marketing and Communications, WMG,
University of Warwick Tel: 024 76 524721 or 07824 540845 L dot Barwick at warwick dot ac dot uk

or

Peter Dunn, Director of Press and Policy
University of Warwick
UK tel 024 76523708 office 07767 655860 mobile
+44 (0)24 76523708 office
+44 (0)7767 655860 mobile/cell
Email p dot j dot dunn at warwick dot ac dot uk

or

Debbie Hughes, Head of PR, Intelligent Energy
Direct +441509 271921
Mobile +447885 879741
debbie dot hughes at intelligent-energy dot com