Due to the efficient straight “flow through” design of the bipolar battery, the performance is typically 35% higher than a standard VRLA battery and can be 35% lighter than a comparable VRLA battery.
We expect the price of the Atraverda battery to be very competitive to standard VRLA which is less than one half the price of NiMh.
The Atraverda battery’s bipolar lead acid design and use of the proprietary Ebonex® conductive ceramic powder combined with thermo-set materials, forms an inert conductive plate. Atraverda’s bi-polar plates are pasted with conventional lead acid positive active mass (PAM) on one face and negative active mass (NAM) on the other face.
Active mass thickness and density vary by application. Each plate is individually mounted and sealed in a plastic frame which becomes the battery casing upon final assembly. Each pasted bi-polar plate becomes a self contained 2V cell with a positive face and a negative face when built into a battery and filled with sulphuric acid.
The bi-polar battery is assembled in 2V increments by layering the framed plates on top of each other with sheets of absorptive glass mat (AGM) separators being compressed between each cell in the stack. Monopole plates (pasted one side only) are located at either end of the cell stack.
With the Atraverda bipolar VRLA battery, the charge current is straight through the active material in the body of the battery, reducing the total resistance of the battery and reducing the time needed to fully recharge our battery.
Standard VRLA batteries are designed with energy collectors – called a cast on strap - at the top of each cell. The energy is then moved through this cast on strap to a vertical terminal and through a plastic partition to the adjacent cell.
This is performed with each of the six cells of a 12V battery. Electron movement through all this “top lead” creates resistance which in turn increases the power that must be put back into the battery to recharge it.
An enormous amount of development has gone into this battery design. The patented plates have seen technical improvements over the years and the inter-frame welds use well-established technology developed in the plastic industry.
The reduced weight of the plates versus grids and the compressive forces of AGM create a cohesive structure within the battery for vibration and impact resistance.
Since the Atraverda battery is a sealed design using an absorptive glass mat separator, there is no maintenance that must be performed on this battery other than to make sure it is not overcharged or dries out like any VRLA battery.
The battery life is affected significantly by the application in which it is installed and the depth of discharge it experiences.
When properly used in heavy duty applications and charged as recommended, a target lifespan of 4-10 years is estimated.
The Atraverda bipolar battery contains lead similar to a standard VRLA and can be returned to the well-established recycle infrastructure of standard automotive batteries.
Since the Atraverda battery uses significantly less lead than a standard VRLA, it contributes less lead to the system. The plastic in the frames also is recycled and used to mold new plastic parts.
