Battery Street Journal

The latest news from 16th ABC, Thailand • September 9-11, 2015

A Batteries International publication

What’s News T

New Anthem, Traditional Dancing, Ushers In the Most Successful Meetings to Date

By Mike Halls An explosion of sound as a specially composed anthem — “Embrace the Sun” — greeted delegates as they entered into the huge hall of the Centara Convention Centre in the heart of downtown Bangkok on Wednesday September 9. This was followed by a spectacular display of traditional Thai dancing as the rest of the delegates to their seats.

The mixture of the new and the old was picked up by conference chairman Mark Stevenson in his welcoming address.

“The conference returns to this city after a 12 year absence where a look around the skyline shows that much appears to have changed but the traditional Thai values and

n Robot plate stacking — Wirtz Manufacturing introduces what could quite possibly become the next generation of plate stackers in yet another incremental improvement for the lead acid battery line. page 8

Mark Stevenson Opening the Conference courtesy are unchanged. Similarly, the lead battery industry forges on despite the constant threat of the challengers.

“So not for the first time we are taking up this challenge Continued on page 10 >

ALABC Restructuring Approved by Members A re-organization plan approved by senior committees at the International Lead Association and the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium was approved by ALABC members on Tuesday afternoon.

The ALABC is a consortium of more than 70 lead producers, battery manufacturers, research institutes and component suppliers.

The restructuring, which has

he Lighter Side of 16ABC — The organizers of the 16ABC came under pressure on Tuesday evening to change the location of the conference immediately — following charges of excessive height about the luxury five star hotel, poor weather and environmental concerns. page 7

been in the pipeline for over a year has finally moved out of steering committee stages — the boards of the ILA and the ALABC had earlier endorsed the proposals and approved sending them to their members — and will now be implemented.

The only bar to their adoption had been the discussion and approval by their members. “We also wanted to make the process

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as open and transparent as possible,” says Tim Ellis, chairman of ALABC. The changes will come into effect in 2016.

In this jumble of acronyms, the ALABC, which is a stand-alone entity that has been run by ILZRO (the International Lead Zinc Research Organization) but admin-

n E=[LAB]2 — Eagle Oxide Services has expanded its products and services to the lead acid battery industry by providing custom engineered and manufactured high-tech automation and material handling equipment and systems. page 9 n If it Wasn’t Fun Doing This, I Wouldn’t Be Here.

Battery Street Journal spoke to Mark Richardson, long-time conference organizer for a peek behind the scenes. page 11 n ABC’s Last Word — Mysterious Signs in the Heavens as Birthday Approaches, BCI the Entrapment Tales, Duty, Duty, Duty that’s Conferences, Bored of Life, take the Solar Challenge! pages 14-15

Continued on page 3 >

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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 16th ABC, Thailand • September 9-11, 2015

ALABC Members Endorse New Collaboration with ILA > Continued from page 1

istered by the ILA, from then on will be run by the ILA. Andy Bush, managing director of the ILA, says: “From next year ALABC’s management and programme support services will be provided by the ILA. They will form part of ILA’s core budget and will be funded by lead producers through their subscriptions to ILA.” Effectively, this means that the whole lead industry that are represented by the ILA will support the ALABC’s work. In practice as a lead producer it is no longer possible to be an ALABC member and not an ILA member — and vice versa.

The exact formula for calculating how ILA members will support ALABC through a new fee structure is still being calculated.

ILA expenditure for ALABC will include the provision of: a full-time research programme manager, communications support, administrative support and senior management support.

Of the total support anticipated, approximately 25% will be dedicated to communications.

ILA services do not include any research project costs, including consulting support (technical or otherwise) or specialist advocacy support.

As part of the reorganization two ILA subsidiaries — the ILMC (the International Lead Management Center) and ILZRO will cease to be stand-alone entities but become units within the ILA. “The changes are as much ideological as they are functional,” says Andy Bush, managing director of the ILA. “For the last year we’ve been looking for a way to deliver a consolidated message for the entire lead industry and we felt that a piecemeal approach with us operating as four separate units wasn’t helping that.”

Bush points out that the ILA’s mandate to promote the lead industry has changed over time

— batteries now account for around 80% of all lead used and need to be the major focus of attention.

The existing structures also needed to be updated to reflect a commitment to benefiting the battery industry, he says.

This, in itself is not new, the ILA itself has gone through a couple of name changes reflecting the change of its mandate. (It used to be the Lead Development Association before becoming the Lead Development Association International before becoming the ILA in the early 2000s.

So what does this mean to ALABC members?

Financially this will take two forms.

In the past lead producing members of ALABC paid their membership dues and had the choice of joining ILA. Now, ALABC membership has to be through the ILA — the whole industry is paying for the research work that it undertakes. By the same token the whole industry has the right to propose what forms of research have to be undertaken (see diagram).

Second, the ILA is revising the membership tiers of ALABC as a result of which there will be changes of fees for some contributors.

The core activities of what was previously ILZRO and ILMC will continue in 2016 although under

the ILA’s banner.

For ALABC its core mandate to provide pre-competitive research open to its members remains the same.

In the official proposal, “ALABC will maintain the three-year funding cycle that has been followed

previously. Also, as with previous programmes, technical input and review of the prospectus has been solicited from all funders of ALABC. The prospectus proposes a re-alignment of the ALABC technical programme towards basic battery research.”

ALABC’s Ellis said after the meeting; “I really hope that after all this ALABC members stay committed to our mission. They need to get actively involved in assuring that the programmes of the ALABC fit their needs.””

New Committee Structure ILA lead producing members

Non-lead producers (battery manufacturers and material suppliers etc.)

ALABC General Assembly (All members represented)

ALABC Executive Committee (Elected by GA)

Technical Committee (All members represented)

ILA/ALABC converting research into battery market opportunities

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RESEARCH AREAS

TECHNICAL OBJECTIVES*

GOALS

APPLICATION

DCA

Improved Performance at PSoC

Automotive HEV applications

Improved Lifetime

Energy Storage applications

Performance of negative plates

Performance of positive plates

Battery Cell Design

High and low temperature Performance

Gassing and water loss

Corrosion resistance

Charging

Formation and charge strategy

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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 16th ABC, Thailand • September 9-11, 2015

One of the Founding Figures of ALABC Respected for a Lifetime in Lead

By Mike Halls It’s odd to think some of the heaviest smogs over Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s were behind yesterday’s win of the International Lead Award by Bob Nelson, the veteran electrochemist and battery expert.

But the connection is valid.

And for that we’ve also got to credit the Californians too.

In 1990 the California Air Resources Board introduced landmark legislation requiring that 10% of all cars sold in the state by 2013 had to be zero emission vehicles. With almost 25 years to clean up their act the Big Three automobile firms in the US put their heads together.

And when two or more of the Big Three are gathered together federal purses open like magic.

So in early 1991 the US Department of Energy announced a three year, $262 million programme.

The result was the US Advanced Battery Consortium. Its mandate was to research battery technologies for electric vehicles.

And their remit had very deep pockets indeed.

The USABC had one particular quirk — it decided that these socalled “advanced batteries” that were to drive the EVs of the future would be any chemistry but lead.

“Lead, it’s a dinosaur technology,” said one DoE official at the time.

It was a wake-up call for the lead acid battery business.

The fight back came a few months later. ILZRO grasped the implications for the industry at once and two key people emerged — Bob Nelson and Jerry Cole

— who took it on themselves to retaliate with the creation of the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium, better known to the world as ALABC. Their mission was to get lead acid battery manufacturers, their suppliers, smelters, research institutes and pretty anyone else interested in the party to join together — and fund — a pro-

gramme dedicated to the exploration of the untapped potential of lead as a source of motive power.

While Jerry did much of the work in trying to tap funding at a governmental level, Bob had the harder task of trying to get battery manufacturers who wouldn’t even sit in the same room as their competitors, agree a com-

Bob Nelson: Much More than a Consortium Builder for the ALABC

mon purpose for the industry.

And then put their hands in their pockets to fund it.

The result was that for the next three years Bob and Jerry crossed-and-recrossed the world trying to put the consortium together. (And then keep it together.) Bob reckoned that on average between 1991 and 1994 he flew about 250,000 miles a year.

And this is not to forget Dave Prengaman who equally tirelessly notched up a similar mileage in a combination of business travel and ALABC work.

The result of Bob’s efforts can be seen in the hall of the ABC today.

“The birth of any organization is fraught but the fact that so many people are here in the conference today — and attended yesterday’s ALABC meetings, is in large part a tribute to the success of Bob’s drive and commitment two decades ago,” one delegate told Battery Street Journal.

But it was more than just a recruitment campaign. When Bob joined in July 1991 IZLRO’s plan of action was little more than a few pages on a flipboard chart.

The need was for a master plan to underpin any recruitment. “It was agreed early on that while the focus would be on optimizing VRLA batteries for electric vehicle use,” Bob said later on, “so roughly half of the programme would be fundamental research that would benefit all lead acid application areas.”

This in turn was refined to research in three areas: active materials and cycle life; grids/alloys/top lead and materials; and, charging, battery management and electric vehicle battery testing. And that general approach has — broadly speaking — remained in place to this very day.

Perhaps the key policy decision taken early on was that ALABC would be an open consortium with free sharing of all research among its members (although steps were taken to protect proprietary product information) — again a defining characteristic of the present ALABC. Bob says: “The high point of my association with the ALABC was to see technical representatives from different lead acid companies from different countries

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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 16th ABC, Thailand • September 9-11, 2015 and continents sitting around the same table expressing an interest in joining an international effort to improve lead acid batteries.

“This may not sound like such as big deal now but in those days most companies jealously guarded their secrets and were loathe to interact with other manufacturers on serious technical matters.”

Early Days But to go back to the beginning.

If you ask Bob Nelson when he first started coming to grips with the lead acid battery business he pauses for a while. Born in 1940 he obtained his first degree in Chemistry in 1963 and followed that up with a Phd in in Analytical Chemistry/Electrochemistry at the University of Kansas in 1966. But that wasn’t even a prelude to the industry, he reckons.

He followed that up with a further 11 years’ teaching about the subject — four years in CalState and seven more in the University of Georgia. But again that wasn’t even a prelude to the industry — “teaching about it and doing it are two separate things” he says. And understanding VRLA batteries is a third, he’ll frankly admit.

But for Bob his special moment came in 1977 when he was offered a position with Gates Energy Products, a now legendary firm that only a decade or so before had been famous for its tyre and autoparts distribution business.

Gates, largely through the research efforts of John Devitt, perhaps the key man in the development of VRLA batteries but who had then parted company with the firm, was sitting on a gold mine but wasn’t aware of it.

“When I joined they had patents that they didn’t even understand and had entered into the manufacturing of the batteries way too early” says Bob. “And partly because of that they were losing money”.

In a showdown with his manager just before Christmas 1979 — and which Bob was uncomfortably aware might cost him his job — he was unexpectedly offered his boss’ job. Despite his protestations that he had no management experience (he was told that there wasn’t time to give

it then and one day, he’d be given it …) he started on the job.

Bob became a key figure in a turnaround of Gates Energy Products, as he looked at improving the manufacturing processes working first with Hollingsworth & Vose on AGM separators.

Gates worked on flat plate design in Denver and then later shipped the manufacturing to UK firm, Varley with disastrous results.

Bob was re-assigned to work in London to sort out the problems.

It was a period that with his wife Elizabeth he describes as one of the best in his life both professionally and otherwise — “it was fun to be the only Yank in a firm of 300 Brits!” he says. His wife he recalls used to visit every play in London at the time and he spent his holidays in Wales, reconnecting with his roots — his father was Swedish and his mother halfWelsh.

“This may not sound like such as big deal now but in those days most companies jealously guarded their secrets” The UK firm, which toughened by the rigour of conforming to exacting military contracts, was eager to get into flat plate manufacturing as well as working out separator systems using glues and dyes for AGM batteries.

“It was one of the first mature VRLA techniques to emerge,” Bob says. “I was particularly proud of the way we started to work with thin plate technology.

Gates had the patent for the infamous ‘861’ glass separator more accurately known as patent US 3862 861 courtesy of John Devitt and Don McClelland, People at the time scorned it saying that the plates would always be more prone to corrode being thinner, we proved the opposite.”

Gates shipped him back to Denver and then Warrensburg, Missouri which he reckoned was

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“a payback for a wonderful time in London”. He was ill during this period and is still grateful for the support that Gates gave him with costly health care.

But other work was beckoning and Dodd Carr at ILZRO (International Lead Zinc Research Organization) reckoned that Bob’s experience would be ideal for the trade body.

Bob left Gates in 1999 joining Portable Energy Products in Santa Cruz before switching to ILZRO when the position of “Manager, Electrochemistry” finally became free.

The rest is history for most of us — but only of course part of Bob’s long career. He confesses that he left ILZRO/ALABC in 1994 with a feeling of being burnt out. He moved to thin-plate lead acid firm Boulder Technologies for the next three years.

In his late 50s Bob moved into consultancy work and though he believes that there are still new worlds to explore in refining VRLA technology, has played key roles in looking at different ways of inventing the lead acid battery.

“In the past 15 years we’ve moved away from trying to make better lead acid batteries using just better materials or improved manufacturing techniques. Now the future is in combining this with accurate and better plate design and processes.”

Advanced Lead In recent years Bob has worked with firms as diverse as Advanced Battery Concepts— which is now successfully building a bipolar lead acid battery, to other firms still on their way such as Axion Power and Firefly Energy.

He continues his work for China’s Chaowei, the third largest battery manufacturer in the world.

Perhaps one of the nicest tributes came from John Devitt, one of key figures in the development of the VRLA battery. “Bob is a fine friend of mine and one of the top electrochemists we have. He is as good as it gets for presentday lead battery consulting. I’m pleased for him that his great contribution to this industry is being recognized.”

David Rand, one of the original

group that talked about setting up ALABC in 1991, introduced Bob to the audience who was then presented the medal by ALABC’s chairman David Wilson and ABC chair Mark Stevenson.

International Lead Award The International Lead Award was conceived with unanimous support from the lead and lead-acid battery industry in 2002 and presented for the first time in 2003. Its role is to recognise individuals who have made major contributions throughout their working life to the lead and/or lead-acid battery industries.

“A prestigious award for exceptional service to the lead industry as related to the production, processing and/or use of the metal in areas such as n Promoting increased use or awareness of lead n Improving lead’s image n Encouraging individuals to excel n The award should honour/recognize above-average personal achievement.”

Previous award winners Alternating between the ELBC and ABC conferences 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

John Manders Jerome F Cole Lan Lam David Prengaman John Devitt Allan Cooper L Pugazhenthy Detchko Pavlov Robert Flicker Norbert Malschitz Brian Wilson Richard Amistadi

Source: ABC

PAGE 5

THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • THE FOURTH SECONDARY LEAD CONFERENCE

The two-day Fourth International Secondary Lead Conference was held immediately before the Asian Battery Conference opened at the Centara Grand Convention Centre in Bangkok on September 7 and 8 writes Brian Wilson.

Brian Wilson: head of ILMC was a moderator at some of the conference events Andy Bush the managing director of the International Lead Association and conference chair said the rise of the Asian lead acid battery market has also made Asia one of the most significant players in the secondary lead industry.

He emphasized how well placed the event was to take stock of where the Asian market is today. But he also looked into the future and evaluate the emerging and new technologies so that every opportunity is taken to develop a global industry that is prosperous, environmentally sound, with the highest standards of occupational health and safety and above all is sustainable.

Change in conference balance While the technical content of the conference was at the cornerstone

of the presentations, he believed there was a definite and significant shift in the balance of the papers.

With so many smelters finding margins ever tighter, the fact that so many of the papers were concerned with maximizing efficiency, that is recovery of as much lead as possible from every battery, even from the furnace slag; minimizing energy consumption by reducing furnace fuel consumption by adopting oxygen flame enrichment as presented

by Air Liquide, or as Gortex outlined by ensuring design pressure drops in baghouses to maintain low electrical consumption; and the means to ensuring long life from furnace refractories by the choice and care of the correct materials was explained by advanced materials technologies.

Delegates were also interested in the increasing number of viable options available to recovery battery components such as the battery electrolyte, which can now be, according to Dross Engineering, reconditioned to a standard that is suitable for sale to the battery manufacturing industry for use in new batteries.

Other uses Or even, in the words of Eco Gypsum, this could be converted to gypsum for use in the cement industry or in a certain form, an agricultural soil conditioner or as an ammonium-based fertilizer if one were to follow the route proposed

by Engitec.

Delegates were also advised by Dross Engineering that there is also a potential market for certain waste plastic separators as an

asphalt binder.

There were two interesting hydro-metallurgical papers presented by Wirtz Engineering and VerdeEn Chemicals that offered a furnace free and thereby atmospheric emission free recycling options that in their opinion are the way forward for new secondary lead recycling plants particularly as atmospheric emission standards are getting ever tighter.

As an industry proud of its environmental objectives, presentations were heard from the New York-based NGO, the Blacksmith Institute, outlining the remediation projects in Indonesia and the cooperation with the Indonesian government on the development of policies to develop a closed

What was surprising this year was that the Chinese finished lead market is so insular, with less than 1% of the finished lead exported, there is virtually no so-called “China” impact on the lead price, this is governed entirely by demand outside China

loop system for lead acid batteries.

This was together with the commissioning of a new environmentally compliant lead smelter in the Philippines by EcoGlobal and the projects undertaken by the ILA for the environmentally sustainable use of lead and the recycling of used lead acid batteries in China and Africa were most welcome.

Market trends and changes in global lead consumption are always of keen interest to delegates, but what was surprising this year was the fact that the Chinese finished lead market is so insular, with less than 1% of the finished lead exported, there is virtually no so-called “China” impact on the lead price, this is governed entirely by demand outside China.

The final session of the conference was a most informative and interactive workshop held by representatives from the London Metal Exchange.

This workshop was an excellent addition to the secondary lead conference agenda and dealt with the much misunderstood, but absolutely essential subject of hedging. Hedging is so important, especially in such economically volatile times, and when margins are tight.

The workshop was closed by the conference chairman, Mark Stevenson, who thanked all the contributors and informed the delegates that the Fifth International Secondary Lead Conference will be held, all other factors permitting, in September 2017 in Kuala Lumpur.

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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • THE LIGHTER SIDE OF 16ABC

Hotel Roof Top Bar Declared ‘A Bit High Up’ Moans Mount as Conference Attendees Declare Dissatisfaction with Weather, Distance to Fall

Health & Safety concern no 1: “Time to move the rooftop bar to the basement: that’d save all that dizziness”

By Mike Halls The organizers of the 16ABC came under pressure on Tuesday evening to change the location of the conference immediately —following charges of excessive height about the luxury five star hotel, poor weather and environmental concerns.

“We think an immediate relocation of the conference to the Bahamas would be advisable,” said one delegate. “Or if you have to be

pedantic and keep the conference in Asia, the Maldives.”

Another delegate, from the UK, said: “We thought the roof top bar was a bit high up,” said the attendee. “It makes you dizzy if you look down. If the conference organizers knew the first thing about health and safety they’d have put the roof top bar a lot nearer the ground. Why didn’t they put it in the basement and call it The Rooftop Basement Bar? “There’s other concerns too.

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With a bit of help — and a good ladder, of course — I could have scaled the glass windows from the existing roof top bar, scrambled out on to the ledge and hurled myself to my death. Don’t these guys care?”

Another European attendee said: “Also when we sit outside the weather is a bit warm — especially at lunch time. Couldn’t they have chosen somewhere cooler?”

Other issues about the roof top bar sparked fury among other del-

egates who complained that if you were sitting in the corner the large lotus blossom emblem on the roof obscured the view.

“It looks a bit like a fingernail too if you’re close up. Surely the conference organizers should have chosen something less anatomically dull beforehand? And coloured lights may make it all look pretty — but surely these effects are distressing to the local wildlife?

One US delegate told Battery Street Journal that he couldn’t see a golf course within a five minute walk of the session. “And what’s the point of a battery conference if you can’t play golf all day?” he asked.

The conference organizers defended their choice of location.

“It’s in the nature of roof top bars to be high up — and our health and safety officer assured us that apparently this is normal. With hindsight we realise that compulsory parachutes might have given some delegates an extra degree of comfort.

“But we would like to point out that this is a spectacular location, a deluxe hotel and — most importantly — we’ve got a great line-up of speakers and networking opportunities that people should dream about.”

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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 16th ABC, Thailand • September 9-11, 2015

Wirtz Manufacturing Introduces Next Generation of Plate Stackers The march of innovation in the battery manufacturing business never stops. And Wirtz Manufacturing’s latest product on display at booths A39 and A44 looks set to take one aspect of plate making to the next level.

The product is a plate stacker.

But it’s not one that the industry has seen before.

Normally when plates are stacked they need to hit a physical stop before being dropped into the stack.

The Wirtz machine is different, as plates come off the oven after drying they are scooped off a conveyor belt by robotic arms and vacuum cups. The robot arms are guided by a vision system which locates every plate irrespective of its position or orientation.

The vision system can also define plate attributes such as its width, height, lug position — and even the percentage of paste coverage.

“The original idea,” says John

O Wirtz, head of the family-run firm based in Port Huron in the US, “occurred to us about three years ago when we were thinking of how to improve this part of the process.”

“I’d noticed two things with the all other plate stackers where there is a physical stopping of the plate and dropping the plates on to stacks.

“The first was quality, it was easy to see that quite often the plate would be distorted in the process, or the paste loosened from the grid. The second was cost and efficiency, it’s rare to go into a battery plant and see a plate stacker that doesn’t stop due to a jam every 10 minutes or so and an operator has to come and clear the jam.”

“We sought a way to fix both problems by adapting the latest vision and robotic technology.”

With the idea in place what Wirtz needed next was a customer to develop this with.

At this point a routine visit to

The original idea occurred to us about three years ago when we were thinking of how to improve this part of the process.”

Exide Industries, India’s largest battery manufacturer, provided the opportunity. Exide wanted a pasting line for its motorbike batteries that could operate at high speed — at 100 feet per minute — that’s 1,000 plates needing to be processed each minute, but also with low labour content.

Wirtz went back and started to refine the product. “Leaving aside the amount of work needed for the mechanical engineering we had to put a couple of thousand

of programming hours to get it right,” he says.

“Our new stacker’s got various selling points — the first is the speed. Our pasting lines have always been able to run faster but were limited by the stackers available up to now. Secondly, our new stacker doesn’t process plates which would cause jams meaning there’s no down time.

“Third, by not using stops, we improve the quality of the plate— and there’s talk about the industry moving to softer alloys of lead — which would require a gentler more precise stacking process. It’s future proofed in that respect.”

The plate stacking machine can be configured for all types of battery plate size and contains optional extras such as plate inspection and weighing while on the conveyor belt line.

So far the Wirtz family have yet to come up with a name for the machine. “We might just call it The Robotic Plate Stacker because that’s what it does!”

Left: The Robotic Plate Stacker in Action. Right: For this 4Ah motorcycle plate, the Palletizing Tool Unloads about 700 Plates per 35 Second Cycle to the Pallet

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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 16th ABC, Thailand • September 9-11, 2015

Sorfin Office in Thailand Thrives Visitors to booths C56, 57 and C58 have the opportunity to meet Sadao Takano, the head of Sorfin Yoshimura’s office in Thailand. Sadao who moved from the company’s Tokyo office at the end of 2013 said the new country’s office — it opened in February last year — has filled

Eagle Oxide Services has expanded its products and services to the lead acid battery industry by providing custom engineered and manufactured high-tech automation and material handling equipment and systems.

Eagle says it can now offer a broader offering of equipment and service throughout the battery production process.

The new automation equipment joins Eagle’s oxide manufacturing and handling equipment including Barton and ball mill oxide systems, red lead and litharge furnaces, meltpots, ingot conveyors, pneumatic transfer systems, and integrated controls.

Joe McKinley, owner of Eagle Oxide, says “The offering of industrial automation solutions is a natural addition to our existing portfolio of oxide equipment.

“We have the skill, talent, and experience to provide well engineered and built solutions

through a larger cross section of a battery manufacturing plant.

We are leveraging this capability to further support our growing global customer base with our high standards of quality equipment and service.”

This is all part of a larger growth story. Eagle outgrew its original manufacturing space and moved to a new 54,000 ft2 (5,016 m2) facility in 2012. As growth continued and engineering demands grew, additional engineering staff was acquired.

This has led to a team of mechanical and electrical engineers with over 125 years of combined experience in designing and developing industrial automation equipment including robotics, vision systems, controls, and complex assembly process equipment.

Come to booth B1, C56, C57, C58 to learn more!

Inside the manufacturing facility: the round blue machines are red lead furnaces being produced

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a gap in its supply chain and for the past year and a half has been able to supply the raw materials for lead acid battery manufacturing on a just-in-time basis.

“We’re going to use our operations in Bangkok as a hub to support our ASEAN customers,” he says.

PENOX Opens New MATE Gauge Two Plant in Korea Years On The PENOX Group told Battery Street Journal that it was proud to announce that its new production plant located in Dongdaegu in South Korea started operations in July. The plant is able to produce all main required quality of battery oxide and red lead. The plant ihas a total production capacity of 10,000 tonnes a year which can be delivered in silo trucks or bagged up.

The technical design and the project management, plus supply of key technical item was provided by PENOX Engineering says Seung Lyoung (Sean) Ha of the group’s sales department.

Steve Mate, chief executive of Co-efficient (Booth B27) says: “We last offered the Mate Gauge in-line paste thickness control at Singapore two years ago. That was the first ABC for Co-efficient and demand has grown since then.

We’ve been making steady sales and anticipate a time when our product is a basic unit on leadoxide pasting lines.”

The Mate Gauge uses laser precision to measure and ensure a constant application of lead oxide paste. This makes a better product and has the capability to save money through ensuring that the right amount of paste is applied.

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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 16th ABC, Thailand • September 9-11, 2015

Glittering Opening for 16ABC in Bangkok > Continued from page 1

wholeheartedly — just like every challenge thrown up over the years by the automotive industry we have met head on: the change from 6 volts to 12 volts, the development of the maintenance free battery, overcoming the various forms of PCL and the exciting developments with our carbon friends such as the UltraBattery, where we can meet hybrid car requirements.”

The opening display and remarks ushered in what looked

set to be the most successful Asian Battery Conference since its inception in the 1980s.

“The mix is right,” one delegate told Battery Street Journal at the opening gala reception. “The conference may be larger but the essential values of open discussion, easy networking and an interesting conference programme, have held true.”

In terms of size, there was a record number of delegates — 770 was the last count as the Journal went to press — and some 100 exhibitors.

The keynote speaker, Imre Gyuk from the US Department of Energy convincingly demonstrated that the US was striding ahead in advancing energy storage at the grid level.

One anecdote of his struck home.

“Ten years ago,” he said, “I could count the number of energy storage projects for the grid on one hand. Later on it was both hands, then later on my toes too.

When I ran out of digits I realised that a database was needed which we then went and set up — now there’s over a 1000 projects listed

and we’re still trying to catch up.”

His speech was enthusiastically greeted as though the challenge of lithium ion at the grid level is a very real one, so too are the opportunities for lead acid batteries.

Just before the lunch break a mellow atmosphere drifted over the conference hall with the traditional presentation of the International Lead Award. It was won by Bob Nelson, one of the key figures in setting up the ALABC (Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium) in the early 1990s.

After a brief introduction by David Rand, a contemporary of Bob, battery industry veterans David Wilson and Mark Stevenson presented the award. n For further details of Bob’s

career go to pages 4 and 5

From Set-Up to Sun-Down

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THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 16 ELBC • INTERVIEW WITH THE ORGANIZER

Battery Street Journal spoke to Mark Richardson, long-time ABC conference organizer about his time coordinating the event.

Mark you first started working on this conference about a decade ago, what changes have you seen?

The biggest thing has clearly been the growth in our meetings.

A decade ago at the very first event I worked on in Shanghai we had just 450 delegates and 50 exhibitors.

This time we’re approaching 750 delegates — coming from 52 countries — and about a 100 exhibitors! It’s fun to be part of the team that’s helped drive this enormous growth.

Yes, we’ve grown in part with the huge rise in business for the region but also because we’re fulfilling the massive needs for regional networking in a way that is clearly working.

So how do you judge the success of these events?

Very generally: in terms of the contacts that people make. And specifically the number of oneon-one meetings that happen at the event and afternoon.

Success shouldn’t ever be only about boasts of the numbers of delegates that attend — though that’s important as an indicator of the utility of the conference — it’s the benefits that the show brings to the business of the attendees.

A lot of froth is talked about how conferences are successful or not in terms of the catering, the quality of the rooms or the gala dinner.

That misses the point.

That’s not to say that these things aren’t important, they form the background for the

This is one of the largest conventions centres in Bangkok and there’s now no longer a single meeting room left to book. Some of the attendees are using hotel rooms to meet their clients.

Some of the major firms — I can think of about three off the top of my head — are sending something like 20 members of their firm to attend.

By the time these meetings are over on Friday you’ll find that a whole swathe of important tie-ups and business deals have been worked on.

Success shouldn’t ever be only about boasts of the numbers of delegates that attend it’s the benefits that the show brings to the business of the attendees meetings to happen. You need an atmosphere of seriousness with a high quality of intellectual contact of the presentations but you also need one of making life easy for the delegates by creating a convivial atmosphere.

And the success of 16ABC? There’s every indication that will be a huge success by the time everything is finished.

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I understand that you’ve structured the exhibition hall to help boost the networking.

Yes, we’ve reconfigured the way that the stands are laid out so that there’s a central island with a café in place. It’ll be a good place for delegates to chill out and talk between some of the sessions.

Giving the exhibitors far more access to the delegates and vice versa. When we planned this meeting we tried to create a balance between informal networking and the more formal contacts that firms will make.

What makes a happy conference for you?

It’d be easy to say, it’s a conference where everything goes smoothly — but that rather misses the point about organizing these things.

They are a challenge and right from the moment you’ve picked the hotel for the following meetings (normally that’s in the preceding December) there’s

a constant set of difficulties to overcome.

Such as?

A lot of the admin side to the work, such as booking halls, caterers and the like can be relatively straightforward, though things never quite work to plan.

And what irritates you most?

I suppose it’s managing all the expectations of delegates, sponsors, media sponsors and other events stakeholders. We’re always here to help.

Gala night, next location All organizers like to keep at least two things under wraps until the last minute — the gala dinner and the location of the next meeting.

Our undercover mole, however, has discovered that the Gala Dinner will include a death-defying act that is certain to provoke gasps of wonder.

“Just think Thailand’s Got Talent” and also think “Past Winner”… that’s about as much as I can tell you,” our undercover agent, would reveal. “And then just think Beautiful Ladies.”

And as far as we can tell the next meeting is going to be held somewhere fabulous in Asia.

PAGE 11

THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 16th ABC, Thailand • September 9-11, 2015

The Sign Outside Hammond’s New Research Centre Says it All: E=[LAB] 2 Hammond’s State-of-the-Art Capabilities Electrical Testing Equipment n 96 position – 12.5 amp 5

volt Maccor for Mini Cell Testing n 16 position – 50 amp

18 volt Maccor for SLI Battery Testing n 18 position – 400 amp

18 volt Maccor for Micro Hybrid/Stationary Testing n 13 position – 25 amp 18

volt Bitrodefor SLI Testing n DTN –3000 amp

discharge unit for cranking

Battery Specific Assets n Temperature Controlled

Water Baths: n Cell and Battery Testing n Experimental Scale

Planetary Mixer n Experimental Tank

Formation Bath n Dry Charge Oven n Environmental Curing

Chamber

General Laboratory Instruments n X-Ray Diffraction n BET Surface Area n UV-Vis Spectroscopy n DSC/TGA

Converting LAB to the power of 2 into less symbolic form — this becomes the lab [LAB] for lead acid batteries [LAB].

The message, which Hammond (booth numbers C56-58) is trying to promote at this year’s ABC meetings is a simple one: “the new R&D facilities are here to support the industry, so please talk to us about your requirements so we can work together to find cost-effective solutions,’’ says Terry Murphy, the chief executive of Hammond.

“The motivation behind the laboratory is to accelerate the rate of advancement of lead acid battery technology.” The emphasis on an increased R&D spend was one of the first actions he took when moving from a position on the board of directors to head of the company.

Hammond has assembled an impressive array of equipment for the laboratory (see the shopping list below) whose basic role is in testing lead acid batteries: from the small scale examination of basic cells upwards, “We’ve compiled a huge

amount of algorithms that can be input to detail the types of usage batteries undergo — and why — that can form the starting point for understanding what performance can be,” says Murphy.

“This means in practice that we can test, say, the cells in different climactic conditions and at the same time, for example, overlay this with a partial state of charge/ discharge that could happen perhaps once a week or several hundred times a day.

“But when we combine this with state of the art testing equipment we can achieve rapid results in finding out the strengths or disadvantages of different cell forms or additives.”

One huge advantage that Hammond’s laboratory can bring to speeding up the analysis is it’s ability to do rapid prototyping — using 3D printing techniques it can quickly output a model that can then be tested.

Achim Lulsdorf, chief technology officer at Hammond says: ““But one huge advantage we can bring to bear is a rapid material and electrode screening process

— typically we can make valid performance predictions within around two weeks. This is unheard of in the industry where it typically takes several months to form a clear picture of how effective a part.”

Clearly there is a commercial imperative behind the services that Hammond is offering. By using the testing equipment and Hammond’s expertise in analysis a new potential client base for its pasting products and formulae is formed from the relationships that inevitably will develop.

“This is not just a good idea for Hammond,” says one commentator, “but it’s good for the lead acid battery industry as a whole.

Whatever some people in the business say there is a mounting challenge that we are all facing with the seemingly unstoppable rise in the adoption of lithium ion batteries.

“One of the most effective ways of fighting back is to show that lead can deliver the same range of services as lithium — but in a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly way.”

PAGE 12 WWW.BATTERIESINTERNATIONAL.COM

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d r o w t s a l e Th Mysterious Signs in the Heavens as Birthday Approaches

The 16ABC meetings were heralded in by a mystery fireball in the heavens over Bangkok and could well, says one totally uninformed journalist, be a sign that this year’s meeting were going to go with a bang.

Others were less sure. “These meetings are important events for the Asian lead acid battery community but are they that important?” questioned one delegate.

“It’s far more than likely that one of the organizing Marks — its either the Nice Australian One or the Other Australian One — is about to have a birthday. Portents from the heavens tend to occur a lot around that date.

“In the Cosmic Side of Things, that’s probably the more important of the two.”

Bored of life? Take the Solar Challenge!

The monotonous in pursuit of the unachievable. That’s one description of the 3000 kilometre race across Australia that happens every two years as a squad of solar-powered vehicles drive from Darwin in the barren wastes of the north of Australia to the barren wastes of the south — aka Adelaide.

This year two of the 46 solar

vehicles will be powered by lead. And one of these has a distinctly Thai flavour.

It’s the product of the Siam Technology College in Bangkok which is competing in the 2015 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. The lead-acid batteries manufactured by Thai Storage Battery will be on display during the 16ABC as will the student crew and faculty.

That’s Piped Whales Jim, not the Original Muzak Found transfixed by the luxury Centara poolside on the hotel’s 26th floor. One member of the conference organizing team remained immobile for a full 20 minutes listening to the eerie sounds of Mozart being played under the water of the swimming pool.

“It’s the ultimate in the US hotel Muzak experience,” another on the team explained. “Your mind goes blank, a drowsy intoxication emerges and you finally know the price of contentment is little more than an quiet early afternoon’s brainwashing.

“Welcome to the world of lithium gentlemen”

BCI, the entrapment tales When two or three US Batterymen are gathered together we know that they have only one four lettered word on their minds. And it begins with a G and ends in that F letter.

So congratulations then to the Master of Entrapment better known as Mark Thorsby who has steadily been building on

the recent successes of the BCI meetings each May with a new entrapment ploy.

“We’ve picked on San Antonio in Texas for next May’s conference,” says our Mark.

“The weather will be fine, there’s stack of things to do down there — and I’m not talking about the 10 types of Macdonald’s sliders that are daily fare — but real cul-

ture with a capital K. “But best of all the local golf course is one of the most famous in North America, It’s surrounded by cliffs and is formed from a quarry. Once inside it’s impossible to escape. Subscription revenues will be superb this year. And the next if I can keep ‘em playing down there long enough”.

PAGE 14 WWW.BATTERIESINTERNATIONAL.COM

THE BATTERY STREET JOURNAL • 16th ABC, Thailand • September 9-11, 2015

We hear that moves to bring This Lead Thunderbolt vehicle to the exhibition hall were not thwarted by the technical difficulties of bringing the rather heavy auto to the 22nd floor but were squashed by one member of the university team.

“Can we truly trust these lead guys?” she said. “They’ll copy our designs, market them as

their own and then make ‘em all again in China. And that’s just those pesky European battery manufacturers.”

However, Battery Street Journal wish the team well as they negotiate some of the most inhospitable terrain on Earth — and we’re not just talking about the suburbs of Darwin and Adelaide — in the pursuit of raw automotive power.

EM

BRA

U CE THE S

STAR

WWW.BATTERIESINTERNATIONAL.COM

the word for it. That means to all of those without a full and thorough academic certification in dead languages, “relating to the sun”.

But it’s also the term that’s going to define the new ABC anthem that played in the opening moments of yesterday’s first day ceremony.

The music was composed for and gifted to ABC by Toby Rand, the Ozzie pop star and fathered by David ‘Pompey football is not dead but sleeping’ Rand.

P OP

the last BCI meeting in Savannah? “Our new found golfing correspondent — a Brit —reported that many of the golfers lacked the Bulldog Spirit and chose not to play the last but one hole on the course.

The reason of course (actual photo) being the alligator was large enough for the faint-hearted to quit early and scuttle back for the last presentation of the day at the convention centre.

M COURTESY E H OF NT Heliacal. That’s

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As every one knows the duty of every native born American Batteryman is to play as much golf as is possible between the hours of daylight during a conference.

Anything less than a full sun-up to sun-down is not just unmanly but a betrayal of the Constitution, the Flag and the duty for every citizen to bear arms in homes, offices, supermarkets across the nation.

But what happened at

TOON TIM EA

Duty, Duty, Duty, That’s Conferences

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PAGE 15

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