Gelco International L.l.c.

Exide Corporation

Daramic, Inc.

Galen H Redden

Rex E Luzader

A lug brushing assembly ( ) that brushes the lugs of battery plates in an in-line manner so as to eliminate extra battery plate handling procedures. The lug brushing assembly ( ) more effectively cleans the lugs of battery plates without causing excessive wearing of the brushes or abrasion on the lugs.

In-line lug brushing assembly

A plate alignment station (24) for advancing a series of plates and for adjusting the orientation or alignment of the plates as they are advanced. The alignment station includes a conveyor (140) having a pair of side-by-side conveyor chains or belts (142, 144) and a pair of servo assemblies (146, 148) each coupled with one of the chains or belts. The servo assemblies can be operated to advance or retard one of the conveyor chains or belts relative to the other to adjust the orientation of plates supported on the conveyors.

Battery plate feeding and handling apparatus

A plate feeding and handling apparatus (10) includes an improved lug brush cleaning mechanism (18) that more effectively holds and cleans the lugs on battery plates. The lug brush cleaning mechanism includes a conveyor assembly (78) that receives and transports plates and a brush mechanism (80) for cleaning the lugs on the plates as they are transported thereby.

A plate feeding and handling apparatus (10) that includes an improved plate feeder (32) and pick-up (36) that more effectively feed and remove plates from a stack of plates is disclosed.

A plate feeding and handling apparatus (10) includes a synchronization assembly (30) for temporarily suspending the transport of plates on a conveyor (224). The synchronization assembly includes mini-stack assembly (268) and a perch assembly (270).

A plate handling apparatus (10) including a plate feeder (12) for sequentially advancing a stack of plates (11) and a pick-up assembly (14) for successively removing the forwardmost plate from the stack is disclosed. The plate feeder (12) includes a conveyor (18), a pair of clutches (22,24), and a crank assembly (26) for moving the stack a first distance toward the pick-up assembly and for subsequently moving the stack a second, slightly shorter distance away from the pick-up assembly before the pick-up assembly removes the forwardmost plate from the stack. This consecutively feeds the stack of plates towards the pick-up assembly so that the forwardmost plate in the stack can be removed from the stack by the pick-up assembly. This also provides a gap between the stack of plates and the pick-up assembly immediately before the pick-up assembly removes the forwardmost plate from the stack for preventing the removed plate from striking the remaining plates in the stack.

Plate feeder apparatus

Apparatus is provided which does not rearwardly move a stack of plates (e.g., a stack of lead acid battery plates) upon approach of a vacuum pick-up head associated with a rotary carrier assembly. Instead, the apparatus maintains a predefined gap between the forwardmost plate in the stack and the rotary carrier assembly until a pick-up head is aligned substantially with the stack. At that time, a movable detent member releases the forwardmost one of the plates in the stack allowing it to be drawn across the gap by the vacuum force of the pick-up head. The timing of the detent member is such that it returns to its detent position to halt advance of the remaining plates in the stack toward the rotary carrier and thereby maintain the established gap between the rotary carrier assembly and the next forwardmost plate in the stack.

Rollerless plate-feeding apparatus

Battery plate envelopes include a sheet of porous film material having a folded widthwise bottom edge and overlapped lateral edges to thereby form a pocket for receiving a battery plate therein. The overlapped lateral edges are joined to one another by a lengthwise extending series of discontinuous joining regions with adjacent ones of the discontinuous joining regions being separated by respective unsealed regions. These unsealed regions thereby establish respective lateral channels through which fluid (e.g., electrolyte employed in a wet storage battery) may pass to the interior pocket, and hence to the battery plate. The discontinuous joining regions are most preferably formed by passing the sheet material through the nip between opposed joining rings, each of which is provided with a series of triangularly-shaped teeth with smooth land areas formed between adjacent teeth series.

Growing community of inventors

Gypsum, KS, United States of America

Galen H Redden