Charlestowne Premium Beverages Inc. (FPWM)

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Found the World Intellectual Property Organization filing:

That filing does refer to Snaper as one of the apparent filers. See below. The full description and claims include mention of manufacturing processes.

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found at: http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?symbols=PRIMEZONE:100&story=200410131619_PZN_65491

The patent applications are entitled CURRENT COLLECTOR STRUCTURE AND METHODS TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF A LEAD-ACID BATTERY, filed March 26, 2004, and assigned U.S. Serial Number 10/809.791, and to the inventions and improvements which are subject to International Patent Application Number PCT/US02/30607 filed September 25, 2002, at the World Intellectual Property Organization under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) entitled CURRENT COLLECTOR STRUCTURE AND METHODS TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF A LEAD-ACID BATTERY.




found via: http://www.wipo.int/ipdl/en/


(12) INTERNATIONAL APPLICATION PUBLISHED UNDER THE PATENT COOPERATION TREATY (PCT)

(11) WO 03/028130
(13) A1


(21) PCT/US02/30607

(22) 25 September 2002 (25.09.2002)

(25) English
(26) English

(30) 60/325,391 26 September 2001
(26.09.2001) US
(43) 03 April 2003 (03.04.2003)
(51)7 H01M 4/80
(54) CURRENT COLLECTOR STRUCTURE AND METHODS TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF A LEAD-ACID BATTERY
(71)
(72) GYENGE, Elod [CA/CA]; Apr. 310, 1930 West 3rd Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia V6J 1L1 (CA). JUNG, Joey [CA/CA]; 972 51st Street, Delta, British Columbia V4M 3Z9 (CA). SNAPER, Alvin, A. [US/US]; 2800 Cameo Circle, Las Vegas, NV 89107 (US).
(74) BERG, Richard, P., et al; Ladas & Parry, 5670 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, CA 90036 (US).
(81) AE, AG, AL, AM, AT, AU, AZ, BA, BB, BG, BR, BY, BZ, CA, CH, CN, CO, CR, CU, CZ, DE, DK, DM, DZ, EC, EE, ES, FI, GB, GD, GE, GH, GM, HR, HU, ID, IL, IN, IS, JP, KE, KG, KP, KR, KZ, LC, LK, LR, LS, LT, LU, LV, MA, MD, MG, MK, MN, MW, MX, MZ, NO, NZ, OM, PH, PL, PT, RO, RU, SD, SE, SG, SI, SK, SL, TJ, TM, TN, TR, TT, TZ, UA, UG, US, UZ, VC, VN, YU, ZA, ZM, ZW
(84) ARIPO patent (GH, GM, KE, LS, MW, MZ, SD, SL, SZ, TZ, UG, ZM, ZW), Eurasian patent (AM, AZ, BY, KG, KZ, MD, RU, TJ, TM), European patent (AT, BE, BG, CH, CY, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, IT, LU, MC, NL, PT, SE, SK, TR), OAPI patent (BF, BJ, CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, GN, GQ, GW, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG)

For information on time limits for entry into the national phase please click here
Published
-- with international search report
-- before the expiration of the time limit for amending the claims and to be republished in the event of receipt of amendments

(57) A battery, a battery electrode structure, and methods to make the same. The product and method comprise applying a layer of lead-tin containing alloy to substrates for anodes or cathodes for lead-acid batteries, in which the substrates are porous or reticulated.

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from the "description and claims" link:

CURRENT COLLECTOR STRUCTURE AND METHODS TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF A LEAD-ACID BATTERY FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to lead-acid battery electrodes and particularly to high surface area electrodes which improve the performance of lead-acid batteries in one or more ways alone or in combination such as: specific discharge capacity, positive active mass utilization, and discharge/recharge CYCLABILITY.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The lead-acid battery in its various configurations is a time-honoured power source for diverse applications such as starting-lighting-ignition (SLI), uninterrupted power supply (UPS) and motive power. Continuous developments on the application side, for instance in the area of electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles (EV and HEV), impose challenging performance demands on battery technologies in general and lead acid batteries in particular.

Pavlov summarized the relationship between battery specific energy in watt HOURS/KILOGRAM (Wh/kg) and number of battery discharge/charge cycles for both flooded and valve-regulated type lead acid batteries.

For both battery types, the higher the battery specific energy the lower the number of DISCHARGE/CHARGE cycles and hence, the battery cycle fife. Typically, a flooded battery with a specific energy of 40 WH/KG can be used for about 500 discharge/charge cycles, while a battery producing only 30 Wh/kg can be employed for about 850 cycles. Thus, there is clearly a need to improve both the specific energy and cycle life of lead-acid batteries in order to make them more suitable for electric traction applications.

It is well known that the low utilization efficiency of the active mass, especially on the positive electrode, in conjunction with the heavy weight of the lead current collectors, limits the actual specific energy of the lead-acid battery. The structure of the current collector plays an important role in determining the utilization efficiency of the positive active mass (PAM). During discharge, on the positive electrode, the structure of the current collector must allow for significant volume increase (e. g. molar ratio of PBS04 to PB02 is 1.88) while maintaining electrical contact with the active material and assuring ionic transport to the ELECTROACTIVE sites.

There are many examples in the prior art describing techniques to increase the specific energy output by improving the porosity and specific surface area of the lead compound based paste (active material) applied onto the battery current collector (or GRID). For example, STOILOV et al in US patent 5, 332, 634 states that "there is a need for making lead electrodes with a porous active mass, which has a large active surface area and which strengthens the electrical connection between the active mass and the grid. Such a porous lead electrode would lead to electrochemical cells and accumulators which produce more power per unit of weight and also present very low electrical resistance. " Regarding improvements in the battery current collector structure, CZERWINSKI and ZELAZOWSKA have described the electrochemical behaviour of lead deposited on a non-metallic open pore substrate, namely reticulated vitreous carbon (RVC), These authors prepared small, 1 CM2 geometric area, collectors by electrodeposition for 10 minutes of Pb from an alkaline solution containing 20 G/L NAOH to produce the negative electrode and anodic oxidation to form lead dioxide (PB02) on the positive electrode using a concentrated lead nitrate based solution (Pb (N03) 2). The amount of generated active material, Pb and PBO2, was small at about 19.3 mg and 22.3 mg, respectively. Consequently, if a battery had been assembled with the above described electrodes, the corresponding capacity would have been extremely low, in the range of 4.5 mAh, insufficient for practical use. Furthermore, the battery structure described by CZERWIHSKI and ZELAZOWSKA is not rechargeable in sulfuric acid, which is the operational electrolyte of lead-acid batteries, since the recommended active material generation procedure required alkaline and nitrate based electrolyte. Therefore, this prior art proposes a technique to manufacture a lead-acid battery with a cycle life of one (i. e. one time use). Clearly, it was not envisaged to paste active materials onto the reticulated substrate in order to create a high capacity, rechargeable battery.

Das and Mondal suggested developing lead acid current collectors with thin layers of active materials deposited on lightweight, electronically conducting substrates, such as a carbon rod. The rationale was only to reduce the'dead weight'of the lead acid system, which would somewhat increase the specific energy.

SNAPER, in United States patent 6, 060, 198 describes the use of reticulated metal structures for use as current collectors in batteries in which the reticulated structure consists of a plurality of PENTAGONALLY faced DODECAHEDRONS.

This prior art does not teach methods for using such a structure to improve the cycle life and performance of a lead acid battery and does not envisage the use of non-metallic electrically conductive substrates such as reticulated carbon to reduce battery weight. None of the above mentioned prior art references regarding reticulated structure suggest any need for combining the reticulated structure with a lead containing paste to create a rechargeable battery suitable for use in multiple CHARGE/DISCHARGE cycles.

Additional cited art is referenced in the accompanying Appendix.

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