A study on the relative runability of grid metal alloys

Abstract

This investigation was made in an attempt to compare the casting properties of various commercially used grid-metal alloys and to study other alloys that promise to be of value in the battery manufacturing industry.

In previous publications (1) it has been shown that zinc has a very market effect in raising the surface tension of type metals when it is present even in small amounts. A more recent publication (2) has shown that zinc in small amounts (which increases (1) the surface tension of type metals) and sodium in small amounts (which decreases the surface tension of type metals) does not impair the ability of type metal to flow in molds all parts of which are above capillary in size.

As neither zinc nor sodium have any appreciable effect on runnability it is concluded that surface tension is a negligible factor in determining the runnability of an alloy in molds which are in all parts of above capillary size.

Since the molds used in casting grid plates are above capillary size in all parts, and from evidence cited, it is concluded that surface tension does not enter this problem, and the procedure as outlined in the following section was chosen as the most logical for this study.

(1) The Surface Tension of Type-Metal Alloys, by H.V. White, Bulletin of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, January 1993, Engineering Experiment Station Serious No. 13.

The Effect of Impurities on the Surface Tension o Type-Metal Alloys, Bulletin of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, by H.V. White, June, 1934, Engineering Station Series No. 17.

2) "The Effect of Zinc and Sodium on the Relative Runnability of Type-Metal Alloys," by H.V. White and F.O. Reese: Bulletin of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, September, 1935, Engineering Experiment Station Series No. 21.