Continuous Casting Drum and Shoe for Complete Battery Grid Filling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing continuous casting machines for lead-acid battery grids face issues such as flashing, incomplete filling of mold grooves, and cold welded seams, leading to poor structural quality and reduced current carrying capacity, especially when operating at high speeds over extended periods.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a drum and shoe design with optimized orifice and return slots, along with a return passage tube, to control molten lead flow and temperature, ensuring homogeneous casting of lugs with frame wires, and integration of a carbon fiber material with a lead conductor to form composite electrodes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If continuous casting is operated at high speed over extended periods, then productivity increases, but flashing of lead between grooves occurs and mold filling becomes incomplete
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-heating the shoe and drum to specific temperature ranges before casting begins. The shoe is maintained at 450-650°F and the drum at 200-400°F to ensure proper molten lead flow and complete mold filling at high production speeds, preventing the flashing and incomplete filling issues that occur during extended high-speed operation
2Productivity
If continuous casting is operated at high speed over extended periods, then productivity increases, but cold welded seams occur at lug junctions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by precisely controlling temperature parameters of the molten lead, shoe, and drum. The molten lead is maintained at 400-700°F, the shoe at 450-650°F, and the drum at 200-400°F. These parameter changes ensure homogeneous fusion at lug junctions even during extended high-speed operation, preventing cold welded seams and maintaining structural strength
3Manufacturing precision
If temperature of shoe and drum is maintained within selected ranges, then manufacturing precision improves, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes temperature parameters to achieve the lowest effective ranges that still produce high-quality grids. The shoe is maintained at 450-650°F and the drum at 200-400°F, which are the minimum temperatures required to prevent flashing and ensure complete mold filling. This parameter optimization reduces energy consumption while maintaining manufacturing precision
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enhances the structural integrity and current carrying capacity of the grids, allows for higher production rates, and improves metallurgical grain structure, while enabling cost-effective mass production of carbon fiber electrodes attached to lead conductors.
Implementation Method 1
a drum and shoe design with optimized orifice and return slots, along with a return passage tube, to control molten lead flow and temperature, ensuring homogeneous casting of lugs with frame wires
Data Source
AI summary
For making battery electrodes, a composite strip of a cast ribbon of an electrically conductive metal attached to and extending along an edge of a longitudinally elongate substrate with a plurality of spaced apart notches cast in the ribbon and opening to an edge of the ribbon spaced from the longitudinally elongate substrate. A rotatable drum with a mold cavity and a confronting casting shoe for supplying molten metal, such as liquid lead, to the cavity may be used in a casting machine to continuously cast the composite strip.