Benefits to Battery Manufacturers
Lead acid batteries move the world - and bipolar VRLA batteries move lead acid batteries to new levels in performance and manufacturing. The bipolar VRLA battery is an industry-changing move to a level in lead acid battery technology that has never been possible until Atraverda.
The industry agrees that lead acid electrochemistry is a great energy source and a proven performer for decades for 99 % of all vehicles currently on the road. The electrochemistry is safe, dependable, proven, readily sourced and cost effective. No other advanced battery technology is recyclable back into batteries and no other proven battery chemistry even approaches this kind of power for today’s electric vehicles – except Atraverda.
New markets and end uses require higher levels of energy density. Atraverda has answered the question of how to efficiently extract higher levels of energy out of the available, but underutilized, lead acid electrochemistry. Our new battery design allows the latent energy of lead acid chemistry to be more fully utilized and available for our customers. This design raises lead acid battery performance.
Our battery’s manufacturing process is:
- simpler
- energy efficient
- environmentally friendly
The bipolar technology reduces:
- the number of battery parts
- the required energy to charge
- lead handling
- lead exposure
- production time
Builds on VRLA know-how
Atraverda bipolar VRLA battery technology continues to use the current paste chemistries, AGM separators and acid electrolytes, but in a radically different design. The bipolar design utilizes existing paste, separator, formation knowledge and expertise of lead acid battery manufacturers to achieve a more efficient battery.
Simpler assembly
Atraverda’s bipolar battery design is a much simpler battery with fewer components and assembly steps. The assembly process eliminates grid casting, paste curing, cast on straps, intercell connects, and associated lead burning and welding.
The electrically conductive substrate is the building block of the bipolar battery. This chemically stable substrate is affixed into an ABS plastic frame to become an Ebonex Bipole Element. The entire battery assembly process starts with the element. The element is then pasted using traditional lead acid paste formulations prepared with conventional preparation techniques. Positive and negative pastes are placed on the respective side of the bipole element. The pasted 2 volt elements are separated by an AGM separator and stacked to the desired voltage. Each element is then sealed to the next element to create the battery. The assembled batteries are then acid filled and formed using traditional VRLA battery equipment.
This unique manufacturing assembly process has the potential for automation with fewer human hands touching the battery during manufacture.
Reduced manning
The number of production personnel required for VRLA bipolar battery manufacturing is reduced by an estimated 50%. This includes eliminating the labor required for hot lead casting of grids, cast on straps, intercell connects, and the processes of group stacking, group burning, pasting, and battery assembly. Future reductions in labor are possible with further automation.
Reduced emissions
Environmental emissions and associated costs are lower for bipolar battery production because of lower lead fume and dust levels, reduced water and air treatment, and reduced regulatory compliance costs.
Modular expansion
Bipolar battery production can be easily increased since the process is modular in nature.
The flexibility of the bipolar manufacturing process allows production lines to be more easily adapted to batteries of different sizes and shapes.
Reduced Energy and CO2 footprint
The energy required to produce bipolar batteries is reduced up to 80% on a battery capacity basis.
Minimal lead exposure
The Atraverda bipolar battery manufacturing process eliminates employee exposure to lead from fumes and greatly reduces exposure in handling. The simpler bipolar VRLA battery manufacturing eliminates the melting of lead and casting of parts needed for the conventional lead acid battery: grids, cast on straps, intercell connects, group burning, and posts – meaning no resulting fumes are created. Because no lead fumes are generated from molten lead, respiratory equipment and engineered solutions for those fumes can be reduced or possibly eliminated.
Reduced inventory
The inventory of parts necessary to produce a bipolar battery is reduced and simplified since the Atraverda bipolar battery design uses significantly less parts for assembly than a traditional VRLA battery. Only three uniquely different parts are used within a bipolar battery: the Ebonex Bipole Element and two Ebonex monopole Elements. The composition of bipolar VRLA batteries will continue to have the need for paste, acid, vents, and an inventory of AGM separators for battery production. However, inventory of grids, cast on straps, intercell connects, posts and battery cases and covers become a thing of the past.
Reduced Work in Process Time (WIP)
Bipolar batteries can be produced quickly and efficiently within one to two days versus the more traditional eight to ten days of production. The simplicity of the bipolar battery production makes production scheduling and work in process simpler and easier to manage.
Reduced lead pricing sensitivity
Most of the cost of a standard valve regulated lead acid battery is in the amount and cost of the lead. As the price of lead increases, this cost is normally passed to the battery user. Since the Atraverda bipolar VRLA battery contains significantly less lead than the standard VRLA battery, the battery pricing volatility and related fluctuations become significantly more stable.
Access to new markets
With higher energy densities, bipolar VRLA batteries will expand the existing markets and will open up new markets for advanced VRLA batteries. New markets in high rate, partial state of charge applications, such as hybrids, are now possible with bipolar VRLA battery designs.
