Manufacturability of SOFC Fuel Cell Materials Such as Ceramic Tapes and Thick-Film Pastes in an ISO/TS Environment

One challenge faced by developers of solid oxide fuel cells and cell stacks is obtaining high-quality fuel cell materials consistently, economically and in large volumes — that is, materials which are manufacturable. Two viable materials technologies are continuously-cast ceramic tapes and thick-film pastes. Paste and tape processing, whether proprietary to the fuel cell manufacturer or the materials supplier, should follow ISO 9001:2000 and, for automotive applications, QS-9000 and ISO/TS 16949 guidelines. This paper describes manufacturing of SOFC tapes and pastes using these guidelines from prototype through scale-up to high volume quantities.