battery answers

[kenputer]

I found this site and if you have any questions about batteries I think you will find the answers here.http://www.mpoweruk.com/glossary.htm#V

[nvmike]

Thanks for the battery link.  I have one question and could not find the answer there, the base material for the + and - plates are a lead grid,  does anyone know what the paste filler is for each plate?  Saw this once years ago and now can not find it.

[nothing to lose]

Lead oxides.  

I will have to find an old file, I have, or had, all that info.

[Larsanderss]

When working in the battery factory (1980s) both plates were made from a lead grid. Both were, in different ways, "coated" with lead oxide wich later by pushing electricity through them was converted to metallic lead (in a spongeish shape) on the negative plate and lead dioxide on the positive one. Experiments were made using the red oxide (mönja, Pb3O4) on the positive but i do not know about the results.

Lars A

[Texas Al]

But lead oxide is a powder or a brittle crystal, isn't it? So didn't the manufacturing method involve mixing it with some kind of binder at some point?

[Texas Al]

Oh, and hey, I found a partial answer to an earlier poster's question and my own:

"EXPANDER:  A blend of lamp black, barium sulfate, and possible other organic and inorganic materials, added to negative paste in order to increase the porosity and minimize the shrinkage of the sponge lead in the finished plate."

I found it here...

http://www.batterypowersystems.com/knowledge/glossary.htm#E

(very nice glossary of little battery details I had no idea they even had words for)

[Texas Al]

Also, you can't tell what this is from looking at the page, but these are the ingredients found in various varieties of Hammond's negative expander.

http://www.ferrex.com/catalog/hammond.html

[Texas Al]

Here's another...

http://www.atomizedproductsgroup.com/id6.html

lingin (same as wood flour?), carbon black, and BaSO4 again

[nvmike]

Thanks for the battery links.  Lots of great information there.