When most people think about a battery they think about the battery that they use in everyday life. Some people have mobility batteries online and so think mobility batteries other people may have a motor bike , so think of a motor bike battery and so on, but the most popular, but the most popular of batteries used in cars today are starter batteries. These batteries are able to off give a short burst of strong electric power to start there car engine.
Most car batteries whatever they are made for, have five main components.
A strong plastic casing, these can be made in any colour, but due to the fact that most batteries are now made from re-cycling the most popular colour is now black.
Positive and negative plates that are always made of lead, “but due to the advent of maintenance free sealed batteriesbatteries can be made of lead- alloys”.
Plate separators are usually made of a synthetic product designed especially for the job.
Battery acid which is a mixture of sulphuric acid and water in a diluted form, this is also known as Electrolyte.
The connection point between the cells that form the positive and negative terminals, are usually made of lead or lead alloys the same as the plates .
Batteries are manufactured the following way. The first part of the process is to produce a plastic container, these are usually made of polypropylene, the manufacturers also mix in a large amount of old recycled materials, this process produces the black casing that we see in today’s batteries, if a coloured casing is required the ingredients have to be pure.
The most used type of casings are made for 12 volt batteries. These casings are split into six compartments to make six two volt cells. These cells look like a row of large ice cubes. When the battery casing is finished a lid is made of the same material and is fitted to the casing and sealed.
The next thing is the grids. Grids are made of lead or lead alloys depending on the type of battery that is been made. The plates will be used as positive and negative plates, this is important to enable the battery to conduct an electric circuit and charge.
Next a mixture of different lead and lead oxides are mixed into a paste and coated onto the plates. Negative plates are coated with sulphates, this process produces negative plates. The positive and negative plates must be separated inside the battery to prevent short circuiting, next thin sheets of porous material called separators are placed between the positive and negative plates. The separators are porous to allow electric current to flow through them, this prevents them from short circuiting.
The next step is a negative and the positive cell is paired up with a separator, this then becomes an Element, there is one element per battery cell,or one cell per container. The cells are connected by metal strips that conducts electricity. The positive and negative terminals are then welded to the metal strips. The battery at this stage is then filled with electrolyte, this is a mixture of sulphuric acid and water.
The lid is then fitted in place and welded on using a special thermal heat process, The battery is then tested for leaks and placed in a bank of other batteries connected onto a charging system. When the battery is fully charged it is cleaned and labelled with the correct labels. The final destination of the battery is usually to a distributor, and is then fitted to the customers vehicle.
Big drive now to re-cycling all batteries
The system has changed in recent years with the advent of re-cycling, indeed whole scrap batteries are now re-cycled on one production line. Scrap batteries enter the line at one end and are completely torn apart. The different parts are split up, and separated, they are then mixed with a certain amount of new materials, then the manufacturing process begins as explained in the earlier paragraphs. Most golf batteries online and mobility batteries are made from new materials because they need coloured casings.
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