Calcium-Calcium Batteries

 
INTRODUCTION

To explain briefly, and by not going into too much detail, we will briefly touch on batteries and how they have evolved over the years.

  • Conventional Batteries

    Because lead is a very soft metal that when they manufacture the plate grid which holds the lead oxide together they need to strengthen that grid and they use 3% antimony to strengthen it. However, it is the antimonial content that causes corrosion, water usage and self-discharge (+/- 1% per day depending on temperature).

  • Low Maintenance

    By dropping the antimonial content from 3% to 1% they have reduced corrosion, water usage and self-discharge however, these three elements are still present.

  • Calcium-Hybrid

    Because a Calcium-Calcium is an extremely difficult and immensely expensive process to develop some manufacturers have gone for a cheaper alternative and that is to use a conventional positive plate and a Calcium negative. This they call a maintenance-free battery, however, this is not a true maintenance free battery as you still have antimony present which causes water usage. They then went further by putting shorter plates in the battery, thus increasing the volume of electrolyte, pretty much like putting a bigger fuel tank in your car – you will go further, but you will still run out of fuel.

  • Calcium-Calcium Conventional

    This is using calcium for both the positive and negative plates but still using a conventional battery case and cover with vent caps with breather holes in. This battery will be low maintenance but as a battery charges hydrogen gas is given off and thus will escape through the holes in the vent caps and will result in water loss.

  • Sealed Calcium-Calcium

    Both calcium positive and negative plates. The case is completely sealed and the cover has a recombination chamber which collects the hydrogen gas and recombines it back into the respective cells thus effectively nullifying water usage.

BENEFITS OF CALCIUM-CALCIUM MF BATTERIES

  • Completely maintenance free for its active life.
  • Extremely low self-discharge providing there is no electrical drain on the battery. It could stand for up to one year and then still have enough power to start the vehicle. Ideal for vehicles, boats, machinery, motor homes, standby generators etc that are not used on a regular basis.
  • High performance-Generally they are high performance batteries putting out high CCA’s (Cold Cranking Amps)
  • Vibration and impact resistant-High density pasted plates are used which improve life- cycle and are resistant to vibration
  • Resistant to thermal runaway-Conventional batteries being used in very hot applications, ie courier vans etc, are prone to a phenomenon called thermal runaway where the battery gets that hot that it just continues to accept charge that it eventually cooks itself. Calcium-Calcium are not prone to this phenomenon so that makes them ideal for this application.
  • Reduced failure due to sulphation-As a conventional battery discharges at roughly 1% per day a battery not being used on a regular basis needs to be recharged every two months to prevent sulphation. Briefly what happens is that you have your battery plates which are surrounded by sulphuric acid. When a battery discharges sulphuric acid is absorbed into the plates, by recharging it the battery acid is pushed out of the plates and no damage is done. However if a battery is left in a discharged state for a period of time (ie even a couple of weeks) the sulphuric acid turns in a crystal called sulphation, and once the plates are sulphated you can throw the battery away. Because Calcium-Calcium battery has an extremely low self-discharge the chances are that you will be using a vehicle/boat etc within a year and thus recharging the battery and therefore preventing sulphation occurring.
  • Increased life time- Because of high density plates, wrought calcium grids and reduced corrosion of the battery plates and the fact that it will never be run dry, we can expect a longer service life.

Calcium-Calcium batteries are extremely difficult batteries to produce and many a manufacturer have fallen by the wayside due to failure in their attempt to make a Calcium-Calcium BatteryWe have every confidence in this product as the manufacturer has been producing the maintenance free battery since 1980 so have many years of experience and have thus perfected this technology.

They have the ISO9001, ISO14001, QS9000 and ISO/TSI16949 certifications.