Sm. Cook et al., THE EFFECTS OF GEOMETRICAL AND PROCESS VARIABLES ON THE QUALITY OF CAST-ON-STRAP JOINTS, Journal of power sources, 59(1-2), 1996, pp. 71-79
An automated laboratory-scale, cast-on-strap joining process for lead/
acid batteries has been developed. This allows tight control of releva
nt casting parameters such as strap mould and metal temperature, lug i
mmersion speed, and the time between strap filling and lug entry into
the molten strap. The joining of lead-antimony or lead-tin strap alloy
s with lead-antimony or lead-calcium-tin lugs is studied. It is found
that lead-tin is not suitable as a strap alloy for the alloy combinati
ons and joining conditions that have been investigated. Penetration de
pth of the lug into the strap is found to be critical and may be optim
ized for a given lug thickness under fixed process conditions. The joi
nt quality improves with a deeper penetration of the thicker lugs for
the geometrical configurations studied in this work. It is far easier
to form a sound joint with thin lugs as these are not as sensitive as
thick lugs to variations in the joining conditions.