US 7,579,096 B2
Fuel reservoir for fuel cell
Takahiro Osada, Fujioka (Japan); Yoshihisa Suda, Fujioka (Japan); Toshimi Kamitani, Fujioka (Japan); Kunitaka Yamada, Fujioka (Japan); and Kouji Nishimura, Fujioka (Japan)
Assigned to Mitsubishi Pencil Co., Ltd., Shingawa-ku, Tokyo (Japan)
Appl. No. 11/597,593
PCT Filed May 26, 2005, PCT No. PCT/JP2005/009660
§ 371(c)(1), (2), (4) Date Jul. 09, 2007,
PCT Pub. No. WO2005/117183, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 08, 2005.
Claims priority of application No. 2004-158050 (JP), filed on May 27, 2004.
Prior Publication US 2009/0023039 A1, Jan. 22, 2009
Int. Cl. H01M 8/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 429—12  [429/13] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A fuel reservoir for a fuel cell detachably connected with a fuel cell main body, wherein:
the fuel reservoir is equipped with a fuel-storing vessel for storing a liquid fuel and a fuel discharge part;
the fuel discharge part is equipped with a valve for sealing communication between the inside and the outside of the fuel-storing vessel;
the inside of the fuel-storing vessel is communicated with the fuel cell main body by inserting a liquid fuel-supplying member into the valve, thereby forming a communication part that communicates the inside of the fuel-storing vessel with the fuel cell main body and through which the liquid fuel in the inside of the fuel-storing vessel is supplied to the fuel cell main body;
the valve comprises an elastic material and has an elliptic form in a cross section;
the communication part is a slit which is provided in a minor axis direction of the ellipse,
wherein the valve is pressed into a circular vessel having a shorter diameter or an elliptic vessel having a shorter major axis than the major axis of its ellipse to compress its own major axis direction.