Lead Acid Battery Manufacturing Process

Battery :
Battery is an essential requirement to start
electrically operating equipments, especially in electrically
operated vehicles. And also, in case of mains failures or
interruptions in power supply, a standby or backup power is
necessary for critical applications. Therefore a battery provides
the necessary power to startup as well as standby depending on
the type of application. Some of the applications of the batteries
include automobiles, railways, airlines, defense,
telecommunication, power stations, industries, and so on. The
battery manufacturing process of each company has its own
special technical patented and secret processes, which are not
bound to be revealed to masses.
Introduction to Lead-Acid Batteries
Therefore, this article is intended to give a brief idea of lead acid
battery manufacturing process. A lead-acid battery is commonly
used in automobile applications and UPS systems. These batteries
provide sufficient energy to start engines, and are maintenance
free, and durable. Mainly 98 percent of these batteries
are recyclable, and therefore, they minimize environmental
impact while being disposed off.

The lead battery is manufactured by using lead alloy ingots and

lead oxide It comprises two chemically dissimilar leads based
plates immersed in sulphuric acid solution. The positive plate is
made up of lead dioxide PbO2 and the negative plate with pure
lead. The nominal electric potential between these two plates is 2
volts when these plates are immersed in dilute sulfuric acid. This
potential is universal for all lead acid batteries. Therefore, a 12
volt lead acid battery is made up of six cells that are connected in
series are enclosed in a durable plastic casing, as shown in the
figure.
The capacity of the battery depends on the amount of lead
dioxide on the positive plate; sulfuric acid present in the battery;
and, the amount of spongy lead on the negative plate. During
discharging process, the suphate ions in the electrolyte interact
with the positive and negative plates and form lead sulfate on
them. This result in the reduction of specific gravity of the
electrolyte in proportion to the charge delivered to the load.

During the charging process, the cycle is reversed, that is, lead
sulphate and water are converted to lead, lead oxide and
electrolyte of sulphuric acid by an external charging source.
This process is reversible, which means lead acid battery can
be discharged or recharged many times. The chemical
formulas of charging and discharging process of the lead acid
batteries is given above.
The main parts of the battery are plates, i.e., anode and cathode
plates, separators, electrolyte or sulphuric acid, case, cell
connectors and terminals, as shown in the above figure.

Manufacturing Steps of Lead-Acid Batteries

Batteries are manufactured using careful maintenance of

equipments in an automated controlled environment. The
Manufacturing processes can be divided into several stages like
Oxide and grid production process, pasting and curing,
assembly process, formation, filling, charge-discharge process,
final assembly, inspection and dispatch. These manufacturing
steps are briefly explained below.
1. Oxide and Grid Production Process
• Lead oxide is obtained by masses of lead from melting furnaces
either by Milling or Barton Pot process methods. In the milling
process, the tumbling action generated by the rotating mill on
solid lead generates heat and then the surface of the lead gets
oxidized. The surface layers of the oxide are removed while the
lead particles roll in the drum. In Barton Pot process a fine stream
of lead droplets is produced by blowing air on molten lead. These
droplets are reacted with oxygen and produce lead oxide.

Casting and stamping methods are generally used for making

battery grids. In casting method, the lead alloy slabs are melted
in melting pot and this molted lead is poured into the patterns of
battery grids whereas stamping operation produces on battery
gridthese grids are s based on stamping on lead sheets. When
cooled after casting operation, these are passed to trimming
machine where rough edges and casting gates are trimmed.
2. Pasting and Curing
•Manufacturers consider the pasting material as a trade
secret,and therefore not reveal this to public. However, this
paste material in general is made with oxide of lead, red lead,
litharge, water and dilutes sulphuric acid. These pastes are
used to fill the grids, i.e., positive and negative grids; but, for
both, the pastes are not exactly filled with the same material,
some expander materials are added for making negative paste.

•The paste is then forced or pressed on the interstices of the

grids by a machine or by hand, and then these are turned as
plates. These pasted plates are cured in ovens under certain
conditions of temperature near 32 degree centigrade for
about 48 hours, with humidity nearing about 90 percent and
are finally allowed to dry condition at ambient temperatures.

3. Assembling the Elements

In this process, all the parts are assembled into a battery case and
covered with the plastic moulds plastic molding plant. This step
involves the formation of positive and negative plate stacks,
insertion of separators, inter-cell connector and plate burning. In
this step positive and negative plates are formed like groups
which are strapped to a suitable rack, slipped together and a
separator is inserted in-between them. This separator is made up
of non-conductive material such as paper, plastic or a glass fiber.
During the burning operation each positive and negative plate tab
is welded to lead to produce an element and these are then
welded to respective positive and negative posts on the battery’s
case top. After keeping this element in the jar or case, sealing
compound is applied to make the space leak proof between the
battery jar and cover.

4. Filling and Formation

After the assembling, battery jar is filled with required amount

of electrolyte through a filling or vent tube. Then, it is ready for
initial charging, which may require several hours of charging
depending on the battery size. Low charging rate is generally
employed that may be nearly one day to several days. This
charge formation may either be dry or wet. In a dry-formation
method, batteries are shipped as dry after the positive and
negative elements are fully charged or formed and dried in
tanks or as an individual plates and are connected to positive
and negative terminals of the battery.

Filling Battery with Electrolyte

 In a wet-formation method, a battery undergoes initial
charging for several hours after plates are immersed in an
electrolyte battery case. And, in some cases, this acid is
dumped and fresh acid is added after forming it.

Formation Process

5. Charging and Discharging

After the formation, batteries are subjected to high-rate

discharge test for short duration to rule out any defects before
sending them out to the final charge. After discharging and
recharging batteries for several times to attain best working
condition, these are inspected and tested with some measuring
instruments.
Then finally these are recharged for certain backup hours and
sent to the next level where additional connections, labeling and
caps are inserted to battery with sealed-cotton packing. At last,
these are dispatched to ordered places.
 Process Chiller Application in Battery Industy
1. Acid Production
2. Plastic Body & Connector Cover

* Acid Production

Two of the most important and widely produced industrial

chemicals are sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid. Both acids are
essential to the agriculture industry as fertilizer. Sulfuric acid
has a vast range of specific uses in most industries such as
petroleum and explosives, while phosphoric acid is added to
soft drinks. Both sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid are used in
the manufacturing of detergents and batteries.

An exothermic reaction occurs when water and sulphur trioxide

are absorbed into sulphuric acid and the result is an increase in
the temperature of the acid. The temperature of the acid must
be cooled. The acid cooling removes the heat from the acid
flow and protecting the equipment and the process from
overheating.

A typical acidic application that requires a chiller system is acid

copper plating. The chiller maintains the process at a specific
temperature so that the acid process is protected. The acid
cooling chiller is used to control the temperature between 25°
– 28°C, and the temperature difference of in/out refrigerating
liquid within a couple degrees.
 Sulfuric acid production flow chart

*Plastic Body & Connector Cover

To make durable plastic Battery Body or case and Connector
cover The Battery industry uses process chillers to reduce
cycle times in injection molding and blow molding by
regulating temperatures.

Innova EPC Ltd