Nozzle Design for Continuous Lead Strip Casting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional lead-acid battery grid manufacturing processes, particularly continuous casting and rolling, are prone to incorporating lead impurities and dross from the molten lead pool, leading to deformations and defects in the grid wires, which degrade battery performance and shorten its lifespan.
Innovation Solution
A lead strip caster system comprising a ladle, a nozzle, and rotating rollers with controlled molten lead delivery and flow management, utilizing dual passages in the nozzle to prevent impurities and dross from entering the casting process, ensuring a cleaner and more controlled molten lead flow, and allowing for adjustments in strip width and thickness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional casting machines draw molten lead from an open pool exposed to atmosphere, then the casting process can be simple and continuous, but lead impurities and dross are drawn into the cast strip causing deformations and defects
Solution Approach 1:
A water-cooled copper nozzle serves as an intermediary component between the molten lead pool and the casting rollers. The nozzle delivers molten lead through a controlled passage, preventing direct exposure to atmosphere and blocking impurities while maintaining continuous casting operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a protected environment by delivering molten lead through a sealed nozzle passage rather than allowing it to flow openly. This eliminates atmospheric exposure and prevents oxidation and contamination during the critical casting phase.
2Manufacturing precision
If gravity casting is used to produce positive plate grids with corrosion-resistant grain structure, then the grid quality is improved, but the process becomes slow and laborious
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the cooling parameters by using water-cooled rollers instead of ambient air cooling in gravity casting. This accelerated cooling rate produces the desired corrosion-resistant grain structure while enabling continuous high-speed operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention enables continuous casting operation where molten lead is continuously delivered through the nozzle and solidified on the rotating rollers, eliminating the batch-by-batch nature of traditional gravity casting and achieving both high quality and high productivity.
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 system produces high-quality continuous lead strips with reduced impurities and defects, enhancing battery grid performance and extending battery life by preventing dross and impurities from entering the casting process, while allowing for efficient production in various applications.
Implementation Method 1
The molten lead may progressively harden as it moves downstream of the passage
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, a lead strip caster for battery grids includes a nozzle, a pair of rollers, and a molten lead supply to the nozzle. The lead strip caster produces a continuous lead strip for making battery grids. The nozzle has at least one passage that communicates with generally opposed faces of the nozzle at least partially received between the rollers to supply molten lead to exterior surfaces of the corotating rollers to form a continuous solid strip of lead from which battery grids may be made.