Daimler Truck prepares series production of fuel cells

Daimler Truck is systematically driving forward the series production of fuel cells with the Daimler Truck Fuel Cell. The know-how in this field is now to be transferred to the direct preliminary stage of series production.

Over the past ten years, Daimler has already built up extensive knowledge in the field of fuel cells and developed production methods and processes. The Stuttgart experts are now transferring this knowledge - in close coordination with their colleagues in Vancouver, Canada, and with ongoing fuel cell development activities - to the direct preliminary stage of future series production. To this end, the company is investing in new, modern facilities that cover every single process stage of fuel cell production: from membrane coating and stack production to the construction of fuel cell units.

Classical industrial production processes cannot be directly transferred to the highly complex and highly sensitive fuel cell stacks. For example, the processing of numerous filigree components takes place in the micrometer range. The slightest contamination could impair the functionality of the fuel cells. For this reason, a clean room with filtered air is being set up for some of the work steps in the planned pre-series production. Optimizing the ambient air in production is also of particular importance, since even slight fluctuations in temperature and humidity can lead to significant material changes. This would make further processing in subsequent processes considerably more difficult.

However, the greatest challenge for the Daimler experts is to achieve a short production cycle time, which is essential for cost-effective production. In the production of fuel cell stacks, the experts therefore sometimes use processes from the packaging industry that are not generally used in conventional engine production.

»We are pursuing the vision of CO2-neutral transport in the future. The hydrogen-based fuel cell is a key technology of strategic importance in this context. We are now consistently pursuing the path towards series production of fuel cells and are thus doing absolute pioneering work - and this goes beyond the automotive industry. We will be investing a very substantial amount of money in the coming years to achieve this,« said Martin Daum, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Truck and Member of the Board of Management of Daimler.

Andreas Gorbach, Head of Daimler Truck Fuel Cell, adds: »As with the development of fuel cell technology, we are also benefiting from the many years of experience of our experts when it comes to production. This gives us an enormous competitive advantage: We are already in a position to work on one of our most important milestones, namely the technological template for the series production of fuel cell systems on a large industrial scale.«