Starter leaf separators

The term leaf separator characterizes the customary stiff version of a starter battery separator that can be inserted individually between the electrodes on automatic stackers, in contrast to pocket separators. This processing requires considerably higher bending stiffness than for pocket separators, calling for thicker backwebs, typically 0.4-0.6 mm (Fig. 18 and 19). 

Typical pore size distributions result in mean pore diameters of around 15 //m. Even long and intensive efforts did not succeed in decreasing this value decisively in order to enable production of micropo-rous pocketing material resistant to penetration [65, 66], In practice PVC separators prove themselves in starter batteries in climatically warmer areas, where the battery life is however noticeably reduced because of increased corrosion rates at elevated temperature and vibration due to the road condition. The failure modes are similar for all leaf separator versions shedding of positive active mass fills the mud room at the bottom of the container and leads to bottom shorts there, unless — which is the normal case — the grids of the positive electrodes are totally corroded beforehand. 

The closest relative to the wood veneer surprisingly has retained some of its properties, which differentiate these separators from pure synthetic ones primarily, a positive effect in reducing the water loss in starter batteries [39, 70-72], This impact tends to decrease as the antimony content in the alloys is lowered, but it still represents an advantage over other leaf separators, unless a microporous pocket is required by the alloy anyway. 

Cold crank performance, battery life expectancy, and freedom from maintenance are generally co-affected by the separators, whereas ampere-hour capacity remains largely unaffected at a given separator thickness. The properties of the different leaf and pocket separators are compared in Table 10. These typical separator properties (lines 1-4) are reflected in the electrical results of battery tests (lines 5-8). The data presented here are based on the 12 V starter battery standard DIN 43 539-02 tests based on other standards lead to similar results. 

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