Manufacturing processes grid casting

Nowadays, most battery manufacturers prefer to use lead-calcium alloys. Calcium acts as a grid-hardening agent. There is also some tin (up to 1%, sometimes more) in the alloy. This improves the casting process and helps to avoid problems at the grid/active-material interface of the positive plate (see Chapter 2). 

At the end of the century, new methods of plate grid manufacture were introduced, parallel to casting. These include the expanding metal grid process and, more recently, the die-cut technology. 

There is no doubt that the continuous grid/plate production technology is most convenient for the manufacture of standard plates for SLI batteries and will certainly compete with the existing casting methods. However, the latter will preserve positions in the battery industry, provided the process is sufficiently flexible with regard to grid size/geometry. 

A disadvantage of these alloys is their softness. So they cannot be manufactured by the conventional casting process, because they could not be handled in the usual equipment, like pasting machines. Rather they depend on continuous processes that combine grid manufacture with pasting. 

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