GB2146487A

GB2146487A - Method of manufacturing battery plate groups

Info

Publication number: GB2146487A
Application number: GB08221227A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Takao Marui; Tetsuo Uwani
Original assignee: Yuasa Battery Corp
Current assignee: Yuasa Corp
Priority date: 1982-07-22
Filing date: 1982-07-22
Publication date: 1985-04-17
Also published as: GB2146487B

Abstract

Battery plate groups are manufactured by forming creases at regular intervals in a soil continuous separator material so that the folding directions may be alternate, and alternately inserting positive plates and negative plates between the separators in conformity with the creases. This method enables the manufacture of battery plate groups with a greater production efficiency as compared with conventional methods. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Method of manufacturing battery plate groups This invention relates to a method of manufacturing battery plate groups.

U.S. Patent No. 3,900,341 (Shoichiro et al) discloses a method of manufacturing storage batteries by housing a battery plate with an envelope type separator. By this method, however, it is difficult to manufacture the storage batteries continuously.

More recently it has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 29822/56 and JA-OS 149636/53) to form the separators by folding a strip or sheet of suitable material more readily applicable to continuous production techniques the tendancy for the separator to unfold gives rise to unacceptably low production rates.

The present invention aims to enable battery plate groups to be assembled at a higher production rate than has been possible hitherto by the methods described above.

According to the present invention we propose a method of manufacturing battery plate groups a crease forming step wherein creases are formed at regular intervals in a continuous separator material so that the folding directions may be alternate and a plate inserting step wherein positive plates and negative plates are alternately inserted between the separators in conformity with the creases.Other features of the present invention are set forth in the appendent claims and in the following description, by way of example, of embodiments of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings of which: Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating one method of assembly battery plate groups; Figure 2 is a perspective view of a plate group produced bythe method illustrated in Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a perspective view of another battery plate group which can be produced by a method according to the present invention.

Referring first of all to Figure 1, the separator material in the form of a continuous flat strip a, is first passed through a crease forming station A including a pair of rotors 1 made of plastics material, for example, hard vinyl chloride each having a radius of 200mm and width of 60mm, and carrying eight projections 2 of a height of 1 mm, equally angularly spaced around the periphery of the rotor and extending across the entire width thereof. The rotors 1 are driven through reduction gearing by a single motor, so as to rotate out of phase in the sense that the projections are relatively displaced from each other by one half of the pitch thereof as shown in Figure 1.

The height of the projection 2 is selected as regulated to suit the thickness of the separator but is preferably in the range of 0.7 to 2mm. When the cross-section of the fold of the separator is Ushaped, it will be easy to insert a plate within the folds of, the separator the separator will not be likely to be cut off in the fole. It is preferable. If desired however, the projection or projections in a position or in positions corresponding to the formation of sufficient creases for one cell, may have a knife edge so as to facilitate severing the separator material to detach from the continuous material separators for individual cells.

Preferably, the continuous separator material is in the form of a soft, flat, smooth sheet typically having a width of 50mm. The material may be, for example, a mat of glass fibres having a fibre diameter of about 1 micron. As the separator material passes between the relative rotors 1, there will be obtained a separator b having creases formed to produce folds in alternate directions at intervals of about 78.5 mm.

The clearance between the rotors 1 can be adjusted or set to any desired value but a suitable clearance between the projection 2 and a peripheral surface of the rotor 1 at the time of forming creases is in the range of 1/3 to 1/2 of the thickness of the separator material and preferably about 1/2 of the thickness. When forming creases in a separator material of a thickness of 1 mm, the distance between the axes of the rotors 1 may be made 401.5mm.

After forming the creases, the separator b is fed to the plate inserting station B atwhich is located a jig 3. Negative plates c and positive plates d are first moved alternately from one direction as indicated by the arrow to line up with the creases of the separator b and then are moved into the folds of the separator so as to form a stack of alternating positive plates d and negative plates c in which adjacent plates are, separated by a double thickness of separator material.

A battery plate group formed by the above described method is shown in Figure 2, from which it can be seen that the lower folds part b-1. By this method, the workability can be improved by about 30% as compared with conventional methods. That is to say, in the conventional system of inserting a plate between folded separators, since no creases are made preparatory to folding the material, the folds of the separator are irregular and, as the separators hold the plates apart, the working efficiency is low.

In the above described embodiment, the positive and negative plates are separated by a double thickness of separator material. Figure 3 shows an alternative embodiment in which positive plates d' and negative plate c' are inserted into oppositely directed folds and are separated by a single thickness of separator material. One advantage of arranging for the plates to be separated by a double or greater even numbered thickness of, separator material is that, the plates can be inserted from one side only, that is to say all of the folds containing plates open in the same direction.

1. A method of manufacturing battery plate groups comprising forming creases at regular intervals in a continuous separator material to permit folding thereof alternately in opposite directions and inserting positive and negative plates alternately between folds of the separator.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the

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

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. SPECIFICATION Method of manufacturing battery plate groups This invention relates to a method of manufacturing battery plate groups. U.S. Patent No. 3,900,341 (Shoichiro et al) discloses a method of manufacturing storage batteries by housing a battery plate with an envelope type separator. By this method, however, it is difficult to manufacture the storage batteries continuously. More recently it has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 29822/56 and JA-OS 149636/53) to form the separators by folding a strip or sheet of suitable material more readily applicable to continuous production techniques the tendancy for the separator to unfold gives rise to unacceptably low production rates. The present invention aims to enable battery plate groups to be assembled at a higher production rate than has been possible hitherto by the methods described above. According to the present invention we propose a method of manufacturing battery plate groups a crease forming step wherein creases are formed at regular intervals in a continuous separator material so that the folding directions may be alternate and a plate inserting step wherein positive plates and negative plates are alternately inserted between the separators in conformity with the creases.Other features of the present invention are set forth in the appendent claims and in the following description, by way of example, of embodiments of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings of which: Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating one method of assembly battery plate groups; Figure 2 is a perspective view of a plate group produced bythe method illustrated in Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a perspective view of another battery plate group which can be produced by a method according to the present invention. Referring first of all to Figure 1, the separator material in the form of a continuous flat strip a, is first passed through a crease forming station A including a pair of rotors 1 made of plastics material, for example, hard vinyl chloride each having a radius of 200mm and width of 60mm, and carrying eight projections 2 of a height of 1 mm, equally angularly spaced around the periphery of the rotor and extending across the entire width thereof. The rotors 1 are driven through reduction gearing by a single motor, so as to rotate out of phase in the sense that the projections are relatively displaced from each other by one half of the pitch thereof as shown in Figure 1. The height of the projection 2 is selected as regulated to suit the thickness of the separator but is preferably in the range of 0.7 to 2mm. When the cross-section of the fold of the separator is Ushaped, it will be easy to insert a plate within the folds of, the separator the separator will not be likely to be cut off in the fole. It is preferable. If desired however, the projection or projections in a position or in positions corresponding to the formation of sufficient creases for one cell, may have a knife edge so as to facilitate severing the separator material to detach from the continuous material separators for individual cells. Preferably, the continuous separator material is in the form of a soft, flat, smooth sheet typically having a width of 50mm. The material may be, for example, a mat of glass fibres having a fibre diameter of about 1 micron. As the separator material passes between the relative rotors 1, there will be obtained a separator b having creases formed to produce folds in alternate directions at intervals of about 78.5 mm. The clearance between the rotors 1 can be adjusted or set to any desired value but a suitable clearance between the projection 2 and a peripheral surface of the rotor 1 at the time of forming creases is in the range of 1/3 to 1/2 of the thickness of the separator material and preferably about 1/2 of the thickness. When forming creases in a separator material of a thickness of 1 mm, the distance between the axes of the rotors 1 may be made 401.5mm. After forming the creases, the separator b is fed to the plate inserting station B atwhich is located a jig 3. Negative plates c and positive plates d are first moved alternately from one direction as indicated by the arrow to line up with the creases of the separator b and then are moved into the folds of the separator so as to form a stack of alternating positive plates d and negative plates c in which adjacent plates are, separated by a double thickness of separator material. A battery plate group formed by the above described method is shown in Figure 2, from which it can be seen that the lower folds part b-1. By this method, the workability can be improved by about 30% as compared with conventional methods. That is to say, in the conventional system of inserting a plate between folded separators, since no creases are made preparatory to folding the material, the folds of the separator are irregular and, as the separators hold the plates apart, the working efficiency is low. In the above described embodiment, the positive and negative plates are separated by a double thickness of separator material. Figure 3 shows an alternative embodiment in which positive plates d' and negative plate c' are inserted into oppositely directed folds and are separated by a single thickness of separator material. One advantage of arranging for the plates to be separated by a double or greater even numbered thickness of, separator material is that, the plates can be inserted from one side only, that is to say all of the folds containing plates open in the same direction. CLAIMS

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the plates are inserted in folds of the separator such that a double or multiple thickness of separator material intervenes between adjacent plates.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the plates are inserted only between folds directed toward one side of the separator.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein plates are inserted such that a single thickness of separator material intervenes between adjacent plates.

5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the creases are formed by passing the separator material between a pair of rotors each bearing projections spaced at regular intervals around the periphery thereof and rotating out of phase with each other by an angular phase shift equal to half the pitch of the projections on one rotor.

6. A method of manufacturing battery plate groups according to claim 5 wherein said rotors are made of plastics material.

7. A method according to claim 5 or claim 6, wherein the clearance between the projections one rotor and the peripheral surface of the other rotor is 1/3 to 1/2 the thickness of the separator material.

8. A method according to any one of claims 5 to 7 wherein the projections have a height of 0.7 to 2 mm.

9. A method of manufacturing battery plate groups according to any one of claims 1 to 8 wherein the separator material is a mat of glass fibres.

10. A method of manufacturing battery plate groups according to any one of claims 1 to 9 wherein the cross-section of the folds formed in the separator material is U-shaped.

11. A method of manufacturing battery plate groups according substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.