Metal founding – Means to shape metallic material – Including ladle or crucible type melt receptacle
Patent
1994-09-09
1996-05-28
Bradley, P. Austin
Metal founding
Means to shape metallic material
Including ladle or crucible type melt receptacle
164135, B22D 3900
Patent
active
055202381
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to an apparatus for assembling battery plates.
The term "battery" is used herein to include accumulators. In a conventional lead-acid battery it is customary to connect together the plates of each stack by means of a lead strap or post which is fixed to aligned lugs or tabs on the plates. Apparatus for casting such straps or post onto plate lugs is described in our British Patent No. 2023471B. In this apparatus there is a mould having at least one battery strap or post mould cavity and a molten feed duct adjacent thereto, a weir between the feed duct and the cavity and a lead supply passage below the duct and connected to the duct by vertical passages through which lead can well up into the duct when lead is pumped into the passage, and the spill over the weir into the cavity. A suitable pumping arrangement is described in International Patent Application No. WO 91/05625.
It is now desired to use bigger moulds, for example a single mould for assembling the plates of two batteries disposed end to end with one another or for large configuration batteries, such as truck batteries. It will be understood that this requires twice as much lead to be delivered to the mould in a comparable time scale. The obvious solutions are either to increase the flow rate through the lead supply passage or to double the cross-sectional area of the passage. The first leads to underfilling of the upstream end of the duct and overfilling of the downstream end of the duct as soon as the lead supply is shut off, whilst the latter results in geyser-like jets shooting up the upstream vertical passages.
One aspect of the invention provides an apparatus for connecting a battery plate to a metal strap or post, including a mould having a set of post or strap mould cavities, a molten metal feed duct adjacent thereto, a weir between the feed duct and the cavities, means for supplying molten lead to the duct, and hence the cavities, including a pump and at least a pair of feed passages extending below the duct and connected to the duct.
The provision of at least two feed passages has surprising advantages. First they are able to supply a large quantity of lead at a relatively low velocity, thus avoiding problems arising from the lead having excess kinetic energy, such as the unequal lead levels in the duct and secondly the mass of lead in each feed passage at the beginning of an operational cycle is relatively low and so the lead can be smoothly accelerated without creating the geyser effect mentioned above.
In one preferred arrangement one feed passage is connected to the duct along or for substantially over half of the length of the duct, whilst the other feed passage is connected to the duct along or for substantially the other half of the duct. If the connection between the half of the duct, which in flow terms, is nearest the pump, is displaced further from its associated cavities than the connection for the half of the duct which is furthest, in flow terms, from the pump, then the rate of emptying of the duct can to at least some extent be balanced.
Preferably the pump is a variable speed pump and conveniently the apparatus further comprises means for increasing the speed of the pump as metal is supplied to the duct and for subsequently reducing the speed of the pump. The pump may be a continuous rotary pump and may for example be of the type described in International Patent Application No. WO 91/05625.
The feed passages are preferably parallel and connected to the duct by generally vertical passages up which the lead can well.
In at least one embodiment there are two parallel sets of mould cavities, each having a molten feed duct and at least a pair of feed passages extending below each of the ducts and connected to their respective duct.
In that case the apparatus may further include at least one displacement body insertable into the mould to vary the volume of a duct and its associated cavities, so that it can be balanced with the volume of the other duct and cavities.
In any of the above arrangements the or
REFERENCES:
patent: 3515204 (1970-06-01), McAlpine et al.
patent: 4108417 (1978-08-01), Simonton et al.
patent: 4241780 (1980-12-01), Eberle
patent: 5146974 (1992-09-01), Mayer et al.
Bradley P. Austin
Herrick Randy
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