Venting belt caster wheel assembly of battery component continuous casting machine
AssigneeWirtz Manufacturing Company, Inc.
InventorsMichael R. Romeo, Jason P. Miller
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A belt caster wheel assembly for a battery component continuous casting machine. The battery component can be a continuous strip of metal grids or a continuous strip of bipolar metal foils. The belt caster wheel assembly, per an implementation, includes a rotatable caster wheel and a moveable belt. One or more gas vents are established in the rotatable caster wheel. The gas vent(s) fluidly communicates with a mold cavity of the rotatable caster wheel. Gas bubbles, voids, and/or other unwanted imperfections in the ultimately-produced battery components can be partly or entirely resolved with the employment of the gas vent(s).
Claims19
A belt caster wheel assembly for a battery component continuous casting machine, the belt caster wheel assembly comprising:
- a rotatable caster wheel having a cylindrical wall with a mold cavity residing at an exterior surface of said cylindrical wall, a gas vent established in said cylindrical wall and having fluid communication with said mold cavity;
- and
- a moveable belt in confrontation with a circumferential working region of said mold cavity;
- wherein, amid use of the battery component continuous casting machine and the belt caster wheel assembly, molten lead or lead alloy is delivered to said circumferential working region of said mold cavity and at least some gas present at said mold cavity at the time of molten lead or lead alloy delivery is displaced by the molten lead or lead alloy and escapes said mold cavity via said gas vent.
A method of actively venting gas from a mold cavity of a belt caster wheel assembly amid molten lead or lead alloy delivery, the method comprising:
- providing an active gas vent at said mold cavity and in fluid communication with said mold cavity;
- delivering molten lead or lead alloy to said mold cavity;
- and
- actively venting at least some of displaced gas present at said mold cavity upon the delivery of molten lead or lead alloy thereto via said active gas vent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.