Team Members & Role:

• Donald Chang – Team Lead
• Eric Coly – Design
• Lindsey Barrett – Evaluation
• Matt Swenson – Fabrication
• Brandon Wong – Analysis

Abstract:
Parker Hannifin’s Hydrogen generators are not meeting the hydrogen flow rates their customers prefer. A hydrogen gas generator with higher hydrogen flow rate is more convenient and time efficient in industrial and lab settings. As a result, Parker initiated a project to move towards larger hydrogen cells, and to evaluate problems in their hydrogen cells. The existing hydrogen cell technology can be assembled, but requires small Belleville washers in large quantities which is time consuming and costly. Due to time constraints, the company has not found a solution to optimize their hydrogen cell assembly. Our team examined manufacturability of these spring elements within the system, specifically we aimed to reduce the number of components and increase assembly speed. An analysis comparing different springs was done and Belleville washers are considered to be one of the best options for hydrogen cells. Spring equations for Belleville washers were done in MATLAB resulting in a design reducing prototype raw material costs for Belleville washers by 37.3% and reducing the number of Belleville washers by 5.67x compared to the existing Parker Hydrogen Cell. 304 Stainless Steel and Aluminum 6061 plates with bolt circles contain an electrolytic process to generate hydrogen gas that needs to be operated at 100 psi. A larger prototype cell was built and tested with helium gas at 240 psi passing the rated pressure specification of 100 psi. Spring data was also collected through a series of tests to validate theoretical calculations. The new prototype improves upon the manufacturability and passes necessary pressure specifications, so Parker can move onto higher hydrogen flow rates.