Panasonic Industrial Batteries Brochure

Alkaline Handbook

English	Industrial Batteries

SAFETY, LONG-LIFE AND POWER!

PANASONIC BATTERIES

PANASONIC INDUSTRIAL EUROPE FIND OUT HOW WE CAN POWER YOUR BUSINESS!

Panasonic Corporation, founded in Osaka 1918, is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of quality electronic and electrical equipment. Its subsidiary, Panasonic Industrial Europe GmbH (PIE) deals with a wide diversified range of indus­trial­ products for all European countries.

This company was formed in 1998 to strengthen Panasonic’s Pan-European industry opera­ tion, and today is active in such different business fields as Automotive, AV/Communication, Appliance, Industry & Devices to satisfy its customer’s needs.

We are able to offer you a wide range of individual power solutions­ for portable and stationary applications. Our prod­ uct range includes high reliability batteries such as LithiumIon, Lithium, Nickel-Metal-Hydride,­ Valve-Regulated­-Lead- Acid (VRLA), Alkaline and Zinc-Carbon. Based on this battery range we can power your business­ in virtually all applications.

Panasonic Energy (PEC) started its production of Panasonic batteries in 1931. Today PEC is the most diversified global battery manufacturer with a network of 20 manufacturing companies in 14 countries. More than 16,000 employees are dedicated to the research and development of new batteries for a new world.

When it comes to production our facilities employ leading edge manufacturing processes meeting the highest quality standards. Our factories are certified to ISO standards. This means that each factory has its own quality and environ­ mental management. The ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 series are the minimum benchmarks that ensure our excellent product reliability.

Furthermore the majority of our factories is also certified to OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series), an international standard for assessing a manage­ ment system for occupational safety. This confirms that our factories have been proactive in putting the occupational health and safety of its staff at the centre of the company‘s­ dealings. In addition our VRLA batteries are for example approved to German VdS standard and U.S. UL standard.

					Panasonic quality –
					certified by authorised companies.
PIE Organisation Divisions				Holistic sustainability
Automotive				Wood is capital for human beings, animals and plants. The
AV/Communication				organisation Programme for the Endorsement of Forest
Appliance				Certification Schemes (PEFC) is working continuously to
Industry & Devices				sustain the ecological equilibrium in our woods. Companies
PMG (Product Marketing Group)				which are certified by PEFC are showing strongly their efforts
Factory Solutions				towards the environment and their responsibility in working
				with the essential raw material wood. PEFC means holistic
				sustainability: an integrated concept which combines eco­
				logical, social and economical aspects. This Panasonic catalog
				is printed in compliance with this paper standard.

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‘eco ideas’ Strategy

Panasonic leads the way … with ‘eco ideas’

Pursuing coexistence with the global environment in its business vision, Panasonic places reduction of the environmental impact in all its business activities as one of the important themes in its mid-term management plan. In its ‘eco ideas’ Strategy, which focuses in particular on rapid implementation of measures to prevent global warming and global promotion of envi­ ronmental sustainability management, Panasonic is advancing three key initiatives: ‘eco ideas’ for Manufacturing, ‘eco ideas’ for Products, and ‘eco ideas’ for Everybody, Everywhere.

The Panasonic ‘eco ideas’ House

We are approaching a global turning corner and it would not be an exag­­ geration to call it the ‘Environmental Industrial Revolution’. Based on this recognition, Panasonic has built an ‘eco ideas’ House on the premise of our showroom, Panasonic Center Tokyo in April 2009 in order to help create a carbon-free society and reduce CO2 emissions from a household sector.

The concept of this ‘eco ideas’ House can be decribed as follows:

1.Virtually zero CO2 emissions in an entire house envisaged in three to five

years into the future

2.Synergy of technology and nature Aforementioned concepts shows that Panasonic is not only aware of it´s envi­­ ronmental responsibility moreover this Panasonic takes action.

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‘eco ideas’ for	‘eco ideas’ for	‘eco ideas’ for
Manufacturing	Products	Everybody,
		Everywhere
Our Plans	Our Plans	Our Plans
We will reduce CO2 emissions across all	We will produce energy-efficient pro­	Wewillencouragethespreadofenviron­
our manufacturing sites.	ducts.	mental activities throughout the world.

Our Goals

In each of our factories a CO2 emissions of 10% reduction till 2010.

Our Measures

Our factories are evaluated with regard to CO2 emission, waste disposal, recycling measures as well as chemical and water consumption within the scope of the ‘Clean Factory’ program and they are set performance targets according to these indicators.

Example

The Wakayama Plant of the Energy Com­ pany is strengthening its management structure to cut CO2 emissions from the main production bases for Lithium-Ion batteries, which are a core component of Panasonic’s energy business. As a result, it has succeeded in roughly halving CO2 emissions per production unit, as well as sharply curbing an increase in CO2 emis­ sions even as production has expanded.

Our Goals	Our Goals
In March 2010 at least 20 products with	Intensive commitment on the part of the
the ‘Superior Green Products‘ classifi­	company owners, international coopera­
cation should be available.	tions and involvement of the employees.

Our Measures

The developers at Panasonic carry out an environmental impact assessment for all our products. Products that meet the highest environmental requirements in the branch with regard to conservation of energy and energy efficiency are classified as a ‘Superior Green Product’ and awarded the Panasonic logo ‘eco ideas’.

Example

We have dispensed with the use of highly toxic Lithium Thionyl Chloride in the production of our Lithium batteries. This is quite rightly classified as highly toxic and should never under any cir­ cumstances be released into the envi­ ronment.

Our Measures

Not only do we sponsor the work of the WWF for the Arctic, Panasonic has also launched a couple of other environmen­ tal initiatives such as the ECO RELAY ini­ tiative in which hundreds of colleagues the world over take part voluntarily for several days in environmental campaigns.

Example

With the support of the GRS Batterien (German Battery Recycling Association) Panasonic arranged a battery collection day with the aim of collecting as many of these spent energy sources as possible and giving out information about the recycling loop of batteries from which valuable raw materials such as Zinc, Manganese and Iron can be recovered.

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	Index	Electro - chemical description	2

1	| Introduction	page 6
2	| Electro-chemical description	page 7
3	| Contruction	page 8 - 9
4	| Performance	page 10 - 11
5	| Applications	page 11
6	| Individual Data Sheets	page 12 - 21
7	| Battery Standards	page 22
8	| Advice	page 22
9	| Product Safety Data Sheets (PSDS)	page 23 - 24
10	| Environment	page 25
11	| Panasonic Standards	page 25
12	| Packaging	page 26

1Introduction

In this booklet we will describe the alkaline manganese batteries, which are basically made from the same basic materials as normal carbon-zinc batteries, but offer higher capacity and high drain performance, longer shelf life, better leakage resistance and superior low temperature behaviour.

The cylindrical alkaline battery is composed of manganese dioxide (+), zinc powder (-) and caustic alkali (Potassium hydroxide) as electrolyte. These alkaline batteries have a higher energy output than zinc carbon batteries, a longer shelf life and better leakage resistance due to the use of purest materials to minimize self discharge. Their perform­ ance in terms of low temperature performance is much better too than zinc carbon batteries.

The actual electrical current is generated through an outside flow of electrons coming from the anode (zinc), passing through the attached load and flowing back into the battery at the cathode (from the can into the manganese dioxide).

[2 electrons on outer layer are given up by the zinc atoms

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The negative electrode or anode is composed of zinc powder in the shape of a mixed gel. The quality of the zinc powder and the size of the particles are carefully controlled to ensure a good and wide surface area during the chemical reaction, thus lowering the internal resistance which is important in case of high drain discharges. Because it’s the zinc which is giving up electrons, thus creating a flow of electrical current, the anode is also the “capacity determining element”.

The positive electrode or cathode is made of manganese dioxide and is produced in the shape of tablets where graphite and electrolyte (and some small quantities of other additives) are added for a better conductivity. This material is generated through an electrolytical process, ensuring the purity and richness of oxygen.

+O2

The electrolyte is a potassium hydroxide solution, which is alkaline (basic) and is present in the anode, cathode and separator (as all three are of porous nature) to assure high conductivity during discharge.

The separator paper divides the positive and negative parts of the battery to prevent internal short circuit and immediate loss of energy. The separator paper is made of a special selected material, which prevents anode particles from migrating inside the battery and causing self discharge.

The battery can is made of nickel plated steel and serves as holder for the battery, but also serves as cathode collector. Panasonic controls thoroughly it’s own in-house produced steel cans to provide thin but strong containers for it’s batteries to hold maximum volumes of active material in a safe and reliable way.

A brass nail connected to the bottomplate serves as anode collector. Exact size of this nail (length as well as thick­ ness) is also important to ensure the proper functioning and reliability of the battery.

A moulded nylon seal connected to the brass nail serves as a seal with an integrated safety venting mechanism. This vent assures the safe and controlled release of any excessive gas which could be generated by improper use of the battery (e.g. short circuiting, over heating, throwing in a fire, over charging or incorrect insertion polarity wise). Once the vent has opened, it will not close again and besides the escaping gas there is always the risk that a certain volume of theelectrolyte will leak as well.

A non-conductive label provides the opportunity of cosmetic design on the batteries. The label also functions as an isolator between the large positive area of the steelcan and the nega­ tive area of the bottom plate to avoid external short circuit.

Structure of Alkaline Industrial

Batteries

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3	Construction	Construction	3

Assembling LR6

Battery assembling

1.

2.

3.

4.

1.Seperator and bottom insulator insert

2.Electrolyte pouring

3.Gelled-anode (negative pole) pouring

4.Collector insert and can curling

Parts

Assembling battery components
	1.		2.

1.Collector unit

●Bottomplate

●Washer

●PY seal

●Nail

2.Contactstrips 6LR61

●Lead A

●Lead B

●Snap 6LR61

Cathode Unit LR6

Mixtablets (+) pressing

1.

2.

3.

1.Manganesedioxide-carbon tablet pressing (positive pole)

2.Tablet inserting and pressing

3.Can grooving

Can Production Procedure

Steel can production

1.

2.

3.

4.

1.Cup making

2.Can drawing

3.Can trimming

4.Washing and carbon coating

Finishing LR6

Battery finishing
	1.		2.

1.Labeling

2.Final check on volt, amperage, leakage and appearance

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