Silver Calcium Battery is a type of lead-acid battery with grids made from lead-calcium-silver alloy. They stand out for its resistance to corrosion and the destructive effects of high temperatures. This makes it ideal for the installations of Uninterrupted Power supply.
Silver Calcium Battery Technical information
Technological improvements of this new alloy include increased corrosion resistance. The greater resistance to high temperatures and longer shelf life, longer life up to 6 years. The other benefit is a minimal self-discharge and as having the highest breakout.
Silver Calcium alloy batteries are a lead-acid battery. The grids made from lead-calcium-silver alloy, instead of the traditional lead-antimony alloy or lead-calcium alloy. They stand out for its resistance to corrosion and the destructive effects of high temperatures. The result of this improvement increased battery life and maintaining a high starting power over time. Pure lead is too soft and would not support itself. A full discharge permanently reduces battery capacity.
Silver Calcium Battery
They stand out for its resistance to corrosion and the destructive effects of high temperatures. The result increased battery life and maintaining a high starting power over time. Comparison of Antimonial and Silver Calcium Battery.
As the demand for lead-acid batteries increased, manufacturers investigated more efficient production methods and ways to satisfy the growing demand for batteries that required minimal on-going maintenance. Calcium alloy technology was developed in the USA and enabled continuous plate making to be a viable process.
It involves the addition of small amounts (0.04%-0.11%) of calcium alloys to lead during grid manufacture to provide the necessary strength required in the continuous plate making process. The added benefits of using calcium are that it is less prone to water loss, gassing rates and storage life problems associated with the use of Antimonial alloys.
DISADVANTAGES
Silver calcium batteries generally require more charging voltage (14.4 to 14.8 V) and deteriorate rapidly in vehicles which do not provide the required voltage range. Alternators which never reach the required voltage range will cause rapid sulfation due to battery never being charged fully. As a general rule, silver-calcium batteries should not be installed to vehicles or systems which are not specifically designed for silver calcium battery chemistry.[This also may occur with static chargers, some of which fail to charge these batteries.
|
PARAMETER |
LOW ANTIMONY |
HYBRID | CALCIUM |
|
Water Loss |
Moderate | Low |
Very Low |
| Shelf Life | Moderate | Good | Very Good |
| Open Circuit Corrosion | Good | Good | Moderate/Good |
| Cycle Life | Very Good | Good | Moderate/Good |
| Charge Acceptance (14.40V) | Good | Good | Moderate |
|
Overcharge Resistance (14.40V) |
Good | Very Good |
Excellent |
Small amounts of other elements such as copper, aluminium and Arsenic are added to act as grain refiners. This reduces the size of the lead grain within the battery plates helping to reduce corrosion, provide additional plate strength and prevent fabrication defects and plate brittleness. The addition of tin to the positive plate provides increased conductivity, additional strength and reduces corrosion rates. Batteries manufactured with calcium alloys have a lower electrical resistance which results in higher CCA, a particular benefit in colder temperatures where higher CCA’s are required to start vehicles.
BENEFITS
Despite these benefits, the use of lead-calcium alloys and the addition of tin does have some problems. Lead-calcium batteries fail more rapidly than Antimonial lead alloy batteries. This is due to rapid corrosion of the positive plate in hotter under bonnet temperatures. Lead-calcium batteries are also prone to grid growth and cracking which in turn leads to premature battery failure. Here the structure and shape of the positive battery plate changes causing cracking and the shedding of active material, again this is accelerated in higher operating temperatures.
An added complication with calcium batteries is “barrier layer sulphation”. When left in a discharged state for extended periods the plates alloy attracts a layer of sulphate which forms an insulator between the plate conductor and the plate material making it difficult to recover a calcium battery when hardened sulphation has set in. In this situation vehicle charging systems and constant voltage chargers will have no effect in recharging the battery to full charge.
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