Lead Acid Batteries with Multiple Purposes
The lead acid battery, invented by the French physician Gaston Plante in 1859, is an electrical storage device that uses a reversible chemical reaction to store energy. When lead-acid batteries discharge, there is a chemical change in the positive plates. They change from lead oxide when charged to lead sulfate when discharged. Besides, lead acid batteries have a capacity of six or more volts, enough to power a vehicle or boat.
Designed to serve multiple purposes, all the lead acid batteries provide either starting or deep cycle power. The only difference is in the amount and duration of power delivered.
When people talk about lead acid batteries, they think of a car battery, which is starting batteries. Engine starters need a very large starting current for a very short time which is offered by the car battery. Starting batteries have many thin lead plates that permit them to discharge large amounts of energy quickly for a short period of time. However, these batteries cannot be discharged deeply because the thin lead plates needed for starter currents degrade quickly under deep discharge and re-charging cycles. If these batteries are completely discharged more than a few times they will become irreversibly damaged.
Deep cycle batteries are designed to be discharged down as much as 80% time after time, which are found on boats or campers. They have thicker lead plates and therefore tolerate deep discharges, delivering a lower, steady level of power for a longer period of time than a starting battery.
Industrial batteries are essentially more complex than deep-cycle batteries. They provide the same low, steady power and for a much longer period of time as the plates are much thicker and more total energy is available for years.
All these batteries are lead acid batteries, which have widely applications in many different industries, such as telecommunication, power systems, radio, and television systems, solar, UPS, electric vehicles, automobile, forklifts, emergency lights, etc. Nowadays, life without the lead acid battery seems implausible. They have myriad uses and are one of the most useful batteries with the longest life cycle, the greatest energy density per pound, and the most mature recycling infrastructure of similarly priced batteries.
Source: www.leoch.com