GB1576115A

GB1576115A - Manufacture of battery plates

Info

Publication number: GB1576115A
Application number: GB15401/76A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Chloride Group Ltd
Current assignee: Chloride Group Ltd
Priority date: 1976-04-14
Filing date: 1976-04-14
Publication date: 1980-10-01
Also published as: AU2429277A; ZA772254B; ES457757A1; FR2348584A1; IT1080406B; AU506449B2; SE7704243L; DE2716542A1

Description

(54) MANUFACTURE OF BATTERY PLATES (71) We, CHLORIDE GROUP LIMITED, a Company registered under the laws of England, of 52 Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W OAU, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: The present invention relates to the manufacture of battery plates of tubular type and is concerned in particular with a method of filling the tubes of such plates with active material and apparatus for carrying out the method.

The invention, though not limited to such arrangements, is described with particular reference to tubular plate arangements in which the tubes are a single preformed assembly since this facilitates assembly of the tubes onto the spines of the plate.

The present invention is concerned particularly with the technique described in the specification of British patent application Nos. 45241/74, cognate with 55500/74 and 42226/75, (Serial No. 1530120) and has as its object the provision of a mechanised filling method whereby increased output can be achieved and in a preferred aspect the provision of a mechanised method for closing the bottom of the tubes, often referred to as bottom barring the tubes, which previously has been carried out manually.

Thus according to the present invention a method of filling tubular plates for electric storage batteries comprises securing each plate in a jig at a loading site in an inverted position with the bottom ends of the tubes open and located at the upper end of the iig and the top ends of the tubes closed and located at the lower end of the iig, and clamping a manifold over the open ends of the tubes of the plate, conveying the plate in the jig along a pathway to an unloading site and supplying battery active material to the plate in the jig so that the battery active material is introduced through the said manifold into the tubular plates as an aqueous slurry through the upwardly facing open bottom ends of the tubes so as to fill the plate with battery active material during the passage of the plate from the loading site to the unloading site, unclamping and removing the manifold from the upwardly facing open bottom ends of the tubes, closing the open bottom ends of the tubes of the plate, removing the filled plate from the jig, and returning the empty jig from the unloading site to the loading site.

The jig is preferably conveyed in a series of indexed rotary steps, the dwell time of each step being sufficient to enable a plate to be loaded into a jig or unloaded from the jig and the number of steps between loading and unloading being such as to provide a time 1.1 to 5 times the time required to fill the plate and preferably 2 to 3 times the time required to fill the plate.

Preferably the slurry is supplied continuously to the plate i.e. both during the steps and between steps.

The movement of the jig from one indexed step to another is preferably utilized to control the commencement and the cessation of the supply of slurry to the plate and the commencement of the bottom barring operation.

The plates are preferably conveyed through a circular pathway and it is preferred to supply the plates mechanically to the jig by means of a horizontal conveyer, on which the plates rest, disposed tangentially to the loading site. Each jig is preferably provided with lifting means for engaging a plate on the horizontal conveyor and lifting the plate into the jig and then clamping it into position, and for unloading the plate by a reverse operation onto a horizontal conveyor disposed radially to the unloading site.

The invention also extends to apparatus for carrying out the method which com prises, a rotary turret provided with jigs, in which tubular plates can be secured, disposed around the periphery of the turret, and a manifold for each jig adapted to be removably clamped to the open end of a plate, a slurry supply tank located below the rotary turrent for supplying battery active material composition as an aqueous slurry, and provided with means for keeping the solids in suspension in the slurry and slurry supply means for supplying slurry from the tank to each of the manifolds, slurry con trol means for controlling the slurry supply means, the slurry control means incorpora ting a pressure relief mechanism so that when the pressure in the slurry supply to an individual manifold exceeds a preset value in the slurry is diverted from the manifold, indexing means for rotating the turret through a series of indexed steps of equal duration, and a bottom barring mechanism adapted to be disposed above the filled tubes in the jig place of the filling manifold.

Each manifold is preferably mounted so as to be retractable from each jig and pre ferably is provided with sealing means en abling it to sealingly engage the jig so that the slurry can be supplied to the interior of the tubes under some pressure if desired.

The slurry control means preferably also incorporates an "on-off" mechanism pre ferably under the control of the indexing means so that slurry can only be supplied to a manifold when it is in a predetermined indexed position.

The bottom barring mechanism preferably comprises a bottom bar supply means adapted to feed bottom bars sequentially to the jig in the correct orientation and bottom bar insertion means adapted to push a bottom bar into the ends of the tubes.

The invention may be put into practice in a number of ways and certain specific embodiments will be described by way of example. with reference to the accompany inp drawing, in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view of a filling station, incorporating an automatic rotary filling unit, for filling tubular battery plates with active material; Figure 2 is a diagram showing the in dexing positions for the rotary filling unit shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a more detailed diavrammatic view of the rotary unit shown in Figure 1 from the other, or rear, side of the unit as seen in Figure 1; -Thrnire 4 is a diaerammntic plan view of the filling unit shown in Figure 1 provided with mechanical plate loading and unloading means Figure 5 is a diavrsmmatic cross section on the line V-V of Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a di rsmmntic persnective view of the top end of the jig or - placement fixture shown in Figure 1 and Figure 5; and Figure 7 is a cross section on an enlarged scale on the line VII--VII of Figure 6.

The rotary filling unit 10 consists of an indexed rotatable turret 11 driven in conventional manner by a motor 12 via an indexing mechanism 13 of appropriate conventional form. The turret 11 is mounted for rotary movement above a slurry holding tank 14 from the top edge of which a skirt 15 extends outwardly so as to catch slurry issuing from the tubular plates during filling and direct it back into the tank 14. A pump 16 (not shown) supplies slurry from the tank 14 via a feed tube 17, which extends up through the turret 11, via a conventional rotary joint 23, and preferably flexible radial feed tubes 19 (only fourteen of which are shown in Figure 1, there being sixteen in the actual unit) to sixteen, preferably retractably mounted, filling heads 20 arranged to cooperate with sixteen jigs 21.

The manifolds are shown in the filling position in Figures 1 and 3, and their preferred upward and rearward movement is desirably controlled automatically by the indexing mechanism 13. This permits automatic bottom barring to be carried out after the plates have been filled.

The feed tubes 19 preferably also incorporate individual valve mechanisms 22 (only one of which is shown in Figure 3) desirably located just above the filling head 20. These valves 22 are preferably provided with a bypass mechanism so that when they are in a state to prevent passage of slurry to the filling heads the slurry is automatically returned to the tank 14 e.g. by gravity. These valves are preferably also provided with a pressure relief mechanism so that as soon as the pressure in the feed tube 19 reaches a preset value e.g. 10 to 30 p.s.i. the valve shuts and the by-pass mechanism operates.

The valves 22 are preferably also provided with an on-off function controlled automatically by the indexing mechanism 13 so that the valves can be positively closed when they are in particular index positions.

In an alternative embodiment the multiple outlet rotary ioint 23 could be replaced by a single outlet rotary joint feeding a ring main 24 (not shown) disposed adiacent the filling heads 20 and provided with similar individual feed control and by-pass valves as the arrangement described with reference to Fisyures 1 and 3. though the bypass could be either to the tank 14 or back to the ring main 24. The ring main 24 could be provided with one or more pumps 25 (not shown) to ensure that there was no settling of slurry in the ring main.

The iigs 21 have unper and lower clamps which may be manually operated or may be pneumaticallv or electricallv operated under control of the indexing mechanism.

Referring now to Figure 2 the turret has 16 indexed positions. The index. mechanism is preferably arranged to have a rapid movement (e.g. 0.5 to 1 second) between index positions and a relatively long dwell time at the indexed positions (e.g. l to 30 seconds or 2 to 5 seconds). The positions are labelled A to P in Figure 2. One preferred indexing arrangement is for position A to be the loading position at which a tubular plate consisting of a porous multitubular sheath threaded onto a multi-element -metallic conductor assembly having a current take off lug, one element of the assembly being located in each tube, is located and clamped in the jig 21 with its lug pointing downwards, the top ends of the tubes, which are now at the bottom, being closed by the conductor assembly and their bottom ends (bottom in use but now at the top) being open to receive the slurry from the filling head 20.

The plate clamped in the jig 21 with the head 20 already clamped to the top of the jig is now indexed to position B, the first filling position. The indexing movement typically takes 0.5 seconds. When the plate 10 is of a size which typically takes 10 seconds to fill to the desired cut off pressure, e.g. 20 p.s.i., the dwell time at each filling station may be 2 seconds. The plate thus indexes round via positions B, C, D, E, F and to position H which it reaches after 15.5 seconds during the whole of which time slurry is being supplied to it.

The plate can now index round to the position N where the clamps, if manually operated, are undone and the plate removed and -placed -on a conveyor 26 by the operative 27. The plate is then check-weighed automatically at the check-weighing station 28 and if up to the correct weight passed to the inspection site.29 where it is visually inspected by the operative 30 and a plastic bottom bar inserted in conventional manner.

However once the plate has reached position H it is preferred to carry out the bottom barring operation automatically whilst the plate is still clamped on the turret 11. For this arrangement the filling head 20 is retracted as shown in figure 3 whilst the plate dwells in position H and the jig then moves round below the stationary bottom barring apparatus 36. The bottom bar is located in position at position 1 and driven home in position J. The filling head is then brought back into position at position K and the plate moved round to position M where the clamps may be released, -if automatic clamps are used, and then to position N where it may be automatically mechanically unloaded or manually unclamped and unloaded.

The jig 21 and filling head 20 may be washed down at positions 0 and P. The bottom barring apparatus 36 consists of a vibratory bowl feeder 35 which orien- tates the bottom bars and feeds them sequentially down a shoot 37 to a location chamber 38 in which they are aligned with the openings in the end of the multitubular sheath. They are then pushed into place by a punch 39 driven by a pneumatic cylinder 40 under control of the indexing mechanism 13.

The jig then indexes round to position J where a separate punch 41 (not shown) and cylinder 42 (not shown) drive the bottom bar home.

In an alternative arrangement a bottom bar could be injection moulded into position.

It will be appreciated that the operative 27 loads a plate into each placement fixture 21 as it reaches position A.

In a preferred modification mechanical loading means are provided.

One form of such mechanical loading means is shown in Figures 4 and 5.

Sheathed spined plates 50.are fed from a hopper 51 along a horizontal belt conveyor 52 disposed tangentially to the turret 11.

The plates are arranged transverse to the conveyor with their lugs 53 towards the turret. A catcher plate 55 having an upstanding catcher bar 56 is pivoted at 57 to the jig 21. When the jig 21 reaches position A the catcher plate 55 is lowered down onto the conveyor 52, and as soon as a plate 50 contacts the catcher bar 56, is automatically pivoted upwards. The dotted line 57 traces the path of the end 58 of the plate as it slides down the catcher plate 55 into the jig.

This includes a support bar 60 mounted for sliding movement between upper and lower portions, the upper position being shown dotted and the lowered position in full lines.

The plate 50 thus slides down the catcher plate 55 until it rests on the bar 60 with its lug 53 extending through the gap 61 at the end of the bar 60. The plate is held at its lug end by a fluted back p]ate 63 which is aligned with a similarly fluted back plate 64 at the upper end of the jig. The flutes in these plates have dimensions such that the tubes of the plate fit into them.

Passage of the lua 53 through the gap 61 or the arrival of the plate 55 at the upright position can be used to trigger a drive mechanism to push the bar 60 to its upper position thus bringing the end 58 of the plate into the clamping position in which it can be clamped by movable front clamp 66 against the rear plate 64. -The head 20 provided with appropriate seals 67 can then be brought down and sealed to the toD of the clamp 66 and back plate 64.

Figure 6 is a perspective view showing the shape of the top end of the back plate 64 in more detail.

Figure 7 is a detailed transverse cross section of the arrangement shown in Figure 6. Figure 7 shows how the clamps can also be used to ensure that the spines are located centrally in the tubes in the plate 50.

At the end of the filling cycle the catcher plate 55 and bar 60 can be used to achieve mechanical unloading.

The clamp 66 is drawn outwardly, the bar 60 lowered and the catcher plate 55 pivoted outwardly. The back plate 63 has a slot in it opposite the lug 53 to enable the plate 50 to pivot outwardly with the plate 55.

The plate is thus lowered down over a radially disposed unloading conveyor 70 which is positioned between the legs of the plate 55 and extends up through them so as to convey a plate 50 out away from the plate 55 and onto another conveyor 72.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A method of filling tubular plates for electric storage batteries comprises securing each plate for electric storage batteries comprises securing each plate in a jig at a loading site in an inverted position with the bottom ends of the tubes open and located at the upper end of the jig and the top ends of the tubes closed and located at the lower end of the jig, and clamping a manifold the open ends of the tubes of the plate, conveying the plate in the jig along a pathway to an unloading site and supplying battery active material to the plate in the jig so that the battery active material is introduced through the said manifold into the tubular plates as an aqueous slurry through the upwardly facing open bottom ends of the tubes, so as to fill the plate with battery active material during the passage of the plate from the loading site to the unloading site, unclamping and removing the manifold from the upwardly facing open bottom ends of the tubes, closing the open bottom ends of the tubes of the plate, removing the filled plate from the jig, and returning the empty jig from the unloading site to the loading site.

2. A method as claimed in Claim 1 in which the jig is conveyed in a series of indexed rotary steps, the dwell time of each step being sufficient to enable a plate to be loaded into a jig or unloaded from the jig and the number of steps between loading and unloading being such as to provide a time 1.1 to 5 times the time required to fill the plate with battery active material.

3. A method as claimed in Claim 2 in which the aqueous slurry of battery active material is supplied continuously to the plate both during the steps and between steps.

4. A method as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 3 in which the plates are conveyed through a circular pathway and the plates are supplied mechanically to the jig by means of a horizontal conveyor, on which the plates rest, disposed tangentially to the loading site.

5. A method as claimed in Claim 4 in which each jig is provided with lifting means for engaging a plate on the horizontal conveyor and lifting the plate into the jig and then clamping it into position, and for unloading the plate by a reverse operation onto a horizontal conveyor disposed radially to the unloading site.

6. Apparatus for carrying out the method claimed in Claim 2 which comprises, a rotary turret provided with jigs, in which tubular plates for electronic storage batteries can be secured, disposed around the periphery of the turret, and a manifold for each jig adapted to be removably clamped to the open end of a plate, a slurry supply tank located below the rotary turret for supplying battery active material composition as an aqueous slurry, and provided with means for keeping the solids in suspension in the slurry and slurry supply means for supplying slurry from the tank to each of the manifolds, slurry control means for controlling the slurry supply means, the slurry control means incorporating a pressure relief mechanism so that when the pressure in the slurry supply to an individual manifold exceeds a preset value the slurry is diverted from the manifold, indexing means for rotating the turret through a series of indexed steps of equal duration, and a bottom barring mechanism adapted to be disposed above the filled tubes in the jig in place of the filling manifold.

7. Apparatus as claimed in Claim 6 in which each manifold is mounted so as to be retractable from each jig and is provided with sealing means enabling it to sealingly engage the jig so that the slurry can be supplied to the interior of the tubes under some pressure if desired.

8. Apparatus as claimed in any one of Claims 6 to 7 in which the slurry control means also incorporates an "on-off" mechanism under the control of the indexing means so that the slurry can only be supplied to a manifold when it is in a predetermined indexed position.

9. Apparatus as claimed in any one of Claims 6, 7 or 8 in which the bottom barring mechanism comprises a bottom bar supply means adapted to feed bottom bars sequentially to the jig in the correct orientation and bottom bar insertion means adapted to push a bottom bar into the ends of the tubes.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. section of the arrangement shown in Figure 6. Figure 7 shows how the clamps can also be used to ensure that the spines are located centrally in the tubes in the plate 50. At the end of the filling cycle the catcher plate 55 and bar 60 can be used to achieve mechanical unloading. The clamp 66 is drawn outwardly, the bar 60 lowered and the catcher plate 55 pivoted outwardly. The back plate 63 has a slot in it opposite the lug 53 to enable the plate 50 to pivot outwardly with the plate 55. The plate is thus lowered down over a radially disposed unloading conveyor 70 which is positioned between the legs of the plate 55 and extends up through them so as to convey a plate 50 out away from the plate 55 and onto another conveyor 72. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A method of filling tubular plates for electric storage batteries comprises securing each plate for electric storage batteries comprises securing each plate in a jig at a loading site in an inverted position with the bottom ends of the tubes open and located at the upper end of the jig and the top ends of the tubes closed and located at the lower end of the jig, and clamping a manifold the open ends of the tubes of the plate, conveying the plate in the jig along a pathway to an unloading site and supplying battery active material to the plate in the jig so that the battery active material is introduced through the said manifold into the tubular plates as an aqueous slurry through the upwardly facing open bottom ends of the tubes, so as to fill the plate with battery active material during the passage of the plate from the loading site to the unloading site, unclamping and removing the manifold from the upwardly facing open bottom ends of the tubes, closing the open bottom ends of the tubes of the plate, removing the filled plate from the jig, and returning the empty jig from the unloading site to the loading site.