Bipolar battery plate
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorJohn J. Rowlette
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A liquid-impermeable plate (10) having throughplate conductivity with essentially zero resistance comprises an insulator sheet (12) having a series of spaced perforations (14) each of which contains a metal element (16) sealingly received into the perforation (14). A low-cost plate can readily be manufactured by punching a thermoplastic sheet (40) such as polypropylene with a punching tool (52), filling the apertures with lead spheres (63) having a diameter smaller than the holes (50) but larger than the thickness of the sheet, sweeping excess spheres (62) off the sheet with a doctor blade (60) and then pressing a heated platen (74) onto the sheet to swage the spheres into a cylindrical shape and melt the surrounding resin to form a liquid-impermeable collar (4) sealing the metal into the sheet.
Claims9
A fluid impervious plate for use as a substrate plate for a storage battery electrode comprising:
- a thin sheet of organic resin insulator having flat first and opposed faces and including a series of spaced, disconnected apertures extending from said first face to said opposite face;
- and
- a fluid-impervious conductor element consisting of metal having a spherically shaped side profile and flat first and second end surfaces sealingly received in each aperture;
- each conductor element being disconnected from every other conductor element and having said first and second end surfaces coincident with and exposed to said faces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.