Have you ever looked inside car batteries? And we decided to look “inside” battery production. The only Belarusian enterprise that produces batteries for passenger cars, is located in Pinsk and is 75% owned by the American corporation Exide. At the plant they speak two languages and make big plans. For example, they are going to produce batteries for the Volkswagen Polo Sedan, which are produced at a plant in Kaluga.
The plates are delivered from the warehouse, “impregnated” with a special paste (lead oxide with additives). They act as guides. Yellowish color - with a positive charge, greenish-gray - with a negative one. The plates are the most important component of the battery, an element of the electrical circuit. Like the filament in a light bulb. The amount of paste determines such an important characteristic of the battery as capacity. And the surface area of the plates is the inrush current.
The thinner the plates and the more of them, the higher the inrush current. Starter batteries (they are the only ones produced in Pinsk) - their figure is higher - are compared to an Arabian horse, traction batteries - to a draft horse.
The Pinsk enterprise is only on the way to creation full cycle production of rechargeable batteries, and now such plates are imported from Poznan, from another plant of the American corporation. “When we have our own space (we are renting it for now), we will be able to expand production. Now our limit is 380 thousand batteries per year. The market demand in Belarus is 700 thousand,”- Anton Uminsky, head of the sales department, briefly introduces us to the matter.
The plates are wrapped in envelopes made of special tape; more precisely, this is done by a machine. Wraps - cuts, wraps - cuts... The goal is to eliminate contact between the positive and negative electrodes.
The separator tape made of porous polyethylene is somewhat reminiscent of rubber, but it is quite thin and has pores. The electrolyte must pass through them.
Everything at the enterprise is automated as much as possible. The equipment was set up by specialists working at the company’s European factories. And in case of a breakdown, technical support staff are always on duty. In an emergency, they are ready to immediately begin troubleshooting. Downtime of one of the two conveyor belts, even for an hour, can result in losses of hundreds of euros.
The conveyor forms a package from a set of plates - the machine alternates them: with a negative charge, then with a positive one, etc.
- The resulting pack is the battery - it can contain from 10 to 16 plates. In turn, each battery consists of six batteries. In total, the battery contains from 60 to 96 plates,- notes Alexander Matvienko, quality manager and one of the old-timers of the enterprise.
At this stage, human intervention cannot be avoided - bad envelopes are rejected. It happens that the edges are unevenly cut and skewed. It's not a matter of aesthetics, of course. Remember above we talked about unwanted contact between negative and positive plates? It’s easier to remove the potential conflict now. The check, of course, will not be limited to this, but the details are below.
If you look more closely, you can see metal “bookmarks” or ears on both sides of the bag. The ears of the plus and minus plates are grouped by different sides package. Why, it will become clear a little later.
Now the packages are placed in another car.
The machine lubricates them with a special solution of organic acid, which removes the oxide film - so that the lead can be soldered better.
Before this, preparations were made to create an electrical circuit in the battery. And now the conveyor begins the main action - the “bookmarks”-ears are “dipped” into molten lead in a special mold (its temperature is 400 degrees Celsius) and the mold is immediately cooled with water. Therefore, the steam is clearly visible in the photo.
Lead ingots are stored nearby, which, in fact, are melted. They look impressive. Dropping one of these on your foot would not seem like much.
By the way, all employees of the enterprise wear special shoes (guests are given galoshes). When something heavy falls on your leg, it protects against injury, which can be quite serious. Goggles and a respirator are also required. It is prohibited to be in this workshop without a mask for more than four hours. All employees are tested monthly for lead levels in their bodies.
Now the future battery receives a plastic box divided into cells - a monoblock. They are also imported from abroad (from Poland and France, where several factories of the American corporation are located). Important point: There are holes in the inner walls. This is also not without reason. We'll remember about them a little later.
Another machine uses pliers to insert already soldered packages of plates into the monoblock: first the even ones, then the odd ones. Like cassettes in a tape recorder.
And here’s what the soldered “bookmark” ears look like. In the future, they will connect to the neighboring cell with a special bridge. Pins for “plus” and “minus” have also been added. At this stage it is very visible electrical diagram Battery Like on the pages of physics textbooks.
“The electromotive force of each cell is 2 V,” continues Alexander Matvienko. - When all six batteries are connected, you will get the desired 12 V battery. It will power both the radio and lighting devices, and, naturally, provide starting current to the starter.
It is difficult to measure the temperature of a metal from a photograph. But believe me, she is tall. Therefore, the future battery is sent to a buffer zone, where the bridges are cooled. At this time, a short circuit test is carried out under a voltage of 2 kV. Even potential contact between negative and positive plates is eliminated. At this stage, defective bags can still be removed and replaced. Opening the candy bar at later stages means incurring losses.
- How do you know that the equipment is not failing?- we ask. - There is a signal copy for this case,- Alexander puts the battery on the conveyor. The red light comes on, and the conveyor “spits out” the rejects into a special compartment.
The final stage of creating an electrical circuit. The plate packs are welded (attention!) through the same holes in the inner walls of the monoblock. Again, no human intervention! Hiss. Welding takes a couple of seconds. Ready!
Before welding
After welding. Pay attention to the indentations in the ears
Another short circuit test, at the same time checking the quality of welding of plate packages. This is the last moment when you can look inside the battery.
Occasionally the operator glances at the light board that hangs right in the workshop. On it, for each conveyor, the number of batteries planned for production and the number of manufactured ones are indicated. Yes, even in a practically American enterprise it will not be possible to get away from the plan.
Gradually, the battery takes on a more presentable appearance. The battery receives an internal cover with plus/minus terminals. Until recently, its design was different. Now it has been changed in favor of technology. Batteries in the same housing come off the assembly line at other Exide factories under the brands Centra, Exide, Tudor, etc.
And now the cover... is removed to finally weld it to the monoblock. It is pressed against the molten plate and pressed against plastic box. Again, the process is as automated as possible.
The entire time we were at the plant, it seemed like someone was missing. The workshop is almost empty, but the work does not stop: there are only about a hundred people at the plant, a minority of whom are involved in production.
Soldering the plus and minus leads (the negative one is a little thinner). A metal pin (born) is connected to a “finger” familiar to motorists, onto which the terminals are attached.
- There are no other metals in the battery other than lead alloy,- notes Alexander Matvienko. - Hand soldering is carried out in order to ensure full contact between the boron and the leads.
The battery is checked again. This time for tightness. The machine inserts tubes into the battery filler holes and supplies air under pressure.
- Distinguish between external and internal tightness. In the first case, we are talking about ensuring that the electrolyte does not spill and there are no microcracks on the body. In the second case, the reliability of the walls between the cells is checked. This is also important, since if the internal seal is broken, the battery will self-discharge faster,- Alexander explains.
They put an internal stamp - a brand.
In fact, this is needed more by the enterprise than by the buyer. The code encrypts the date, shift and some specifications. For example, "1" means 55 amp-hours, "2" means 60 amp-hours.
We go up to the platform from which the main workshop is clearly visible. At the end of the day, managers hold a planning meeting here. It's felt in everything Western approach. The speaker walks into a circle outlined on the floor. He is given no more than two minutes. The plant is managed by a Serb of Australian origin, John Nikolic. He practically knows neither Russian nor Belarusian, so all communication takes place in English.
The “dry” battery is transported to the “wet” workshop. There are a lot of barrels and containers here, and the workers are dressed in special aprons, gloves, and oversleeves. An aggressive environment after all. You constantly have to deal with dilute sulfuric acid. Yes, this is where another important stage occurs - electrolyte is poured into the batteries. This is again done by a machine. The density of the poured electrolyte is 1.26 g per 1 cubic meter. cm.
After this, the operator inserts plugs and connects the batteries with connector wires - an electrical circuit is obtained, which can contain up to 16 batteries. They settle for no more than an hour. At this time, the electrolyte is absorbed into the plates, and the batteries are cooled, because when filled, their temperature rises sharply.
The batteries are transported to the formation site. When you walk in, you immediately notice the characteristic smell of chemical reaction products; out of habit, we even started coughing. The batteries are still collected in one circuit. But now current is supplied there. For what?
- This is formation. If you fill in the electrolyte and do nothing, the process of sulfation, which is undesirable for batteries, will begin, the interaction of lead and acid,- our guide explains. - As a result, crystals and lead sulfates are formed, which in the future will no longer be able to participate in chemical processes, and the battery will lose part of its capacity. By the way, a note to car enthusiasts: it is for this reason that a discharged battery cannot be stored for a long time. To prevent this, the battery is charged with current. Each type has its own programs and algorithms. Depending on the battery capacity, the process can take from 15 to 40 hours.
Already formed batteries are returned back to the “wet” workshop. Electrolyte is added there, the level of which, as a rule, decreases slightly. This is due to the fact that during the charging process the acid is absorbed into the plates, part of which goes to electrolysis. To top it off, the next automatic installation checks the level again.
All procedures with electrolyte are completed. A cover with special plugs is installed on the battery to prevent motorists from inadvertently being splashed with acid. Precautionary measures, of course, are not superfluous. The batteries produced here are maintenance-free. This means that for at least a year and a half, car enthusiasts should not look inside the battery on their own to measure the density and electrolyte level. Although it is possible to remove the cover.
All that remains is to clean up the mess. The battery falls into the washing tunnel. Here, drops of electrolyte are washed off.
Stripping the plus and minus terminals. They become beautiful and shiny - this is how the buyer will see them. But this is not only to give a presentable appearance - it is more difficult to remove current from oxidized terminals.
Another test - perhaps one of the most important and decisive. The battery is tested with a “high” current for performance. Within two seconds, an electric current of up to 1500 A is “taken” from the battery, while the voltage at the terminals is measured. The indicator should be at least 50% of the initial value, that is, from 6.0 to 6.5 V. If it is lower, then this is a defect, and the battery, no matter how offensive it may be, is sent to inspectors for analysis.
The controller must find out what is causing the problem. Then the research results are sent to the quality and technical support service to eliminate defective products in the future. Photos of defective items hang above the table.
The needle marker applies another coding. The first digit is the year of manufacture (“3” indicates 2013), the letter A is the month (by Latin alphabet: A - January, B - February, C - March, etc.), F - symbol plant (the Americans assigned the letter F to the Pinsk enterprise), 18 is the day of the month, A1 is the shift designation. By the way, the warranty period starts from this moment.
Finishing touch. The worker puts the terminal cover on and places the stickers on the body. There is one trick here. There are several types of stickers, although there is no difference in batteries; they come off the same assembly line. The products of the Pinsk enterprise are known in Belarus under the Zubr brand, and in Russia the same batteries are sold under the Hagen brand. A well-known marketing ploy: when one product is sold under different names. Stickers are the last step. The batteries are then taken to a warehouse and from there to suppliers.
A battery or galvanic cell is a chemical source electric current. All batteries sold in stores essentially have the same design. They use two electrodes of different compositions. The main element for the negative terminal (anode) of salt and alkaline batteries is zinc, and for their positive terminal (cathode) is manganese. The cathode of lithium batteries is made from lithium, and a variety of materials are used for the anode.
The electrolyte is located between the electrodes of the batteries. Its composition is different: for salt batteries, which have the lowest resource, ammonium chloride is used. Alkaline batteries use potassium hydroxide, while lithium batteries use an organic electrolyte.
When the electrolyte interacts with the anode, an excess of electrons is formed near it, creating a potential difference between the electrodes. When an electrical circuit is closed, the number of electrons due to chemical reaction is constantly replenished and the battery maintains current flow through the load. In this case, the anode material gradually corrodes and breaks down. When it is completely used up, the battery life is exhausted.
Despite the fact that the composition of the batteries is balanced by manufacturers to ensure long and stable operation, you can make the battery yourself. Let's look at several ways you can make a battery with your own hands.
Method one: lemon battery
This homemade battery will use an electrolyte based on citric acid, contained in lemon pulp. For electrodes we will take copper and iron wires, nails or pins. The copper electrode will be positive, and the iron electrode will be negative.
The lemon needs to be cut crosswise into two parts. For greater stability, the halves are placed in small containers (glasses or shot glasses). It is necessary to connect the wires to the electrodes and immerse them in the lemon at a distance of 0.5 - 1 cm.
Now you need to take a multimeter and measure the voltage on the resulting galvanic element. If this is not enough, then you will also need to make several identical lemon batteries with your own hands and connect them in series using the same wires.
Method two: a jar of electrolyte
To assemble a device with your own hands, similar in design to the world's first battery, you will need a glass jar or glass. For the electrode material we use zinc or aluminum (anode) and copper (cathode). To increase the efficiency of the element, their area should be as large as possible. It would be better to solder the wires, but the wire will have to be attached to the aluminum electrode with a rivet or bolted connection, since it is difficult to solder.
The electrodes are immersed inside the can so that they do not touch each other, and their ends are above the level of the can. It is better to secure them by installing a spacer or a cover with slots.
For the electrolyte we use an aqueous solution of ammonia (50 g per 100 ml of water). Aqueous ammonia solution ( ammonia) is not the ammonia that is used for our experiment. Ammonia (ammonium chloride) is an odorless powder white, used in soldering as a flux or as a fertilizer.
The second option for preparing the electrolyte is to make a 20% sulfuric acid solution. In this case, you need to pour the acid into the water, and in no case vice versa. Otherwise, the water will instantly boil and its splashes, along with the acid, will get on your clothes, face and eyes.
When working with concentrated acids Wearing safety glasses and chemical-resistant gloves is recommended. Before making a battery using sulfuric acid, it is worth studying in more detail the safety rules when working with aggressive substances.
All that remains is to pour the resulting solution into the jar so that there is at least 2 mm of free space left to the edges of the vessel. Then, using a tester, select required amount cans.
A self-assembled battery is similar in composition to a salt battery, as it contains ammonium chloride and zinc.
Method three: copper coins
The ingredients for making such a battery yourself are:
- copper coins;
- aluminium foil;
- thick cardboard;
- table vinegar;
- wires.
It is not difficult to guess that the electrodes will be copper and aluminum, and an aqueous solution of acetic acid is used as the electrolyte.
Coins first need to be cleaned of oxides. To do this, you will need to briefly dip them in vinegar. Then we make circles from cardboard and foil according to the size of the coins, using one of them as a template. We cut out the mugs with scissors, put the cardboard ones in vinegar for a while: they should be saturated with electrolyte.
Then we lay out a column of ingredients: first a coin, then a cardboard circle, a foil circle, a coin again, and so on until the material runs out. The final element should again be a copper coin. You can solder wires to the outer coins in advance. If you don’t want to solder, then the wires are attached to them, and the entire structure is tightly wrapped with tape.
During the operation of this DIY battery, the coins will become completely unusable, so you should not use numismatic material that is of cultural and material value.
Method four: battery in a beer can
The anode of the battery is the aluminum body of a beer can. The cathode is a graphite rod.
Additionally you will need:
- a piece of foam more than 1 cm thick;
- coal chips or dust (you can use what’s left from the fire);
- water and regular table salt;
- wax or paraffin (candles can be used).
You need to cut off the top part of the can. Then make a circle of foam plastic the size of the bottom of the jar and insert it inside, having previously made a hole in the middle for the graphite rod. The rod itself is inserted into the jar strictly in the center, the cavity between it and the walls is filled with coal chips. Then an aqueous solution of salt is prepared (3 tablespoons per 500 ml of water) and poured into a jar. To prevent the solution from spilling out, the edges of the jar are filled with wax or paraffin.
You can use clothespins to connect the wires to the graphite rods.
Method five: potatoes, salt and toothpaste
This battery is disposable. It is suitable for starting a fire by short-circuiting the wires to produce a spark.
To create a potato lighter you will need:
- large potato;
- two copper wires in insulation;
- toothpicks or similar thin slivers;
- salt;
- toothpaste.
Cut the potato in half so that the cut plane has the largest possible area. Using a knife or spoon, select a hole in one half where you pour salt and add toothpaste. Mix them together until a homogeneous mass is obtained. The amount of “electrolyte” should be level with the edges of the recess.
In the other half, which will be the top, we pierce two holes at some distance from each other so that they both fall into the recess with the electrolyte when assembling the “battery”. We insert wires into the hole, previously stripped of insulation by about a centimeter. Place the halves together so that the ends of the wires are dipped into the electrolyte. Use toothpicks to secure the halves together.
We wait about five minutes, after which, by connecting the wires to each other, you can strike a spark and start a fire.
All the methods described above are not a full replacement for a battery purchased in a store. The voltage on homemade elements can fluctuate and its value cannot be adjusted accurately. You won't be able to use them for a long time either. But somewhere in the wilderness, in the absence of electricity, assemble a battery with your own hands for mobile phone or an LED light bulb, everyone is quite capable. Naturally, if you have the appropriate materials at hand.
In this video tutorial we will show you how to make a battery with your own hands. To make it, we need a small container with a lid, soda, water, and a charger.
Pour water into a vitamin jar, pour 1.5 teaspoons into it baking soda. Mix the solution well. Let's clean the welding electrode from the coating. We cut two pieces of 7 cm from the electrode. We bend the ends of these blanks. We insert these blanks into the holes in the lid and screw it into the bottle.
We connect the charger to the ends of the battery. Charge the battery for 10 minutes and check the operation of the homemade battery. The estimated output voltage is 1.5-2.5 volts. This power is enough when charging 3 hours for 20 minutes of LED glow. To prevent your battery from swelling, do not seal it.
Another way to make a homemade battery
Homemade battery from scrap materials with a minimum of tools. Imagine a situation when there is no one nearby the necessary details, more precisely, there is a minimum, but you are in field conditions when there is no variety. You will have to experimentally artificially limit yourself to the choice of materials.
In the absence of copper in the plates, let’s take copper wire. We will remove the insulation using fire. Cut a piece of galvanized iron into equal plates. Wiring with insulation to connect the circuit. You can immediately take a conductive wire without insulation. We must also find plastic bottle, any dielectric will do. Conductive liquid solution (saline or acidic, alkaline). Disposable cups.
To begin with, we twist the fire-annealed wire into a cylinder to increase the area. We cut identical plates from galvanized steel according to a template and roll them into cylinders (we bend the corner to clamp the contact wire in it).
From plastic bottle we cut the cushioning material that will be located between the copper and galvanization. We assemble the battery elements, fasten one end of the wire to a thread, the other to zinc and two single wires. One with copper is positive and one with zinc is negative.
We assemble the battery into a series circuit. First, let's try pouring a solution saturated with salt. In the field, any saline solution, urine, etc. will do. Voltage 7.74 volts. Let's replace the saline solution with an acidic one; table vinegar was used in the experiment. In field conditions, sour wine, sorrel infusion, cranberry juice and more are suitable for ours. Voltage 8.05 volts.
Let's replace it with an alkaline solution; in nature, you can try replacing baking soda with ash placed in water (lye), but you need to experiment to check. Voltage 9.65 volts.
So, let's summarize: on average, from 10 elements we get 8 volts, one glass is equal to 1.25 volts. To reduce the voltage for charging the phone (5.5 volts), we remove two cups; the procedure takes 20 seconds. Or increase it to 4.5 volts by adding 5 cups. This is how you can make a battery when you can’t buy one, with your own hands.
You will need
- - glass jar;
- - lead:
- - clay;
- - sulfuric acid;
- - measuring chemical glassware;
- - direct current source;
- - hydrometer;
- - tester or multimeter;
- - distilled or rain water;
- - wires;
- - light bulb 2.5-3 V;
- - locksmith tools.
Instructions
Accumulator battery comprises individual elements. Make one such element. Take sheet lead 5-6 mm thick. If you only have lead in the form of ingots, make a mold, dry it and cast plates of the thickness you need by heating the lead on a stove or burner. The plates should have hangers to hold them on the top edge of the can. To avoid soldering, when casting plates, you can immediately put pieces of copper wire stripped of insulation into the mold, which will later be used to connect to a charger or energy consumer.
Install molded plates on top edges glass jar. A rectangular jar is better. The plates should not touch each other or the bottom of the jar. To avoid short circuits, you can place glass rods or tubes between the plates. The distance from one plate to another should not be less than 1 cm.
This type of battery is called an acid battery, so it uses an electrolyte based on sulfuric acid. The electrolyte can be bought ready-made, but if necessary, nothing prevents it from being made. Concentrated sulfuric acid, which can be found commercially, has specific gravity 1.08. Divide it as follows. For 3.5 volumes of water, take 1 volume of sulfuric acid. Pour water, preferably distilled, into a chemical container. You can buy it at an auto store. Filtered rainwater is also suitable. Add sulfuric acid to the water in a thin stream with constant stirring. Remember to ensure that the solution does not splash. Allow the liquid to cool (sulfuric acid becomes very hot when dissolved). The density of the solution according to a Baume hydrometer should be 21-22°C.
Prepare. You will need it immediately after filling the battery. Fill the electrolyte so that its level is 1 cm below the top edge of the jar and the top edge of the plates. Immediately begin the first charge, which is carried out only DC. Mark the polarity of the plates with “+” and “-” signs. A fully charged acid battery should show a voltage of 2.2 V on the plates.
All mechanical and chemical work on the battery has been completed, but its capacity is still small. To increase it, carry out molding. Connect a light bulb to the output wires and allow the battery to fully discharge to this load. Check the discharge with a tester or multimeter.
After discharging, charge the battery “in reverse”, that is, by swapping the wires going to the charger so that “+” becomes “-” and vice versa. Discharge the battery again through the light bulb. It is advisable to perform this operation 15-20 times to approximately double the battery capacity. There is no need to mold it anymore.
It is advisable to provide the battery with a cover to protect the electrolyte from contamination. The cover can be made from any dielectric, even wood impregnated with paraffin. It is advisable to arrange the battery terminals in the form of terminals or clamps. Be sure to note their polarity upon completion of the last molding cycle. When using an acid battery, do not add a new one to replace the evaporated electrolyte, only add water to the previous level. If you want to make a battery, connect several of these batteries in series.
