Product design and manufacturing process considerations for the application of a 10 year design valve regulated lead acid battery in the outside plant environment

New telecommunication applications like fiber-in-the-loop, fiber-to-the-home, and wireless systems (cellular, personal communication services, and specialized mobile radio), have created new challenges for the lead acid batteries that supply the emergency power for these systems. The challenges are: volumetric energy efficiency, thermal management, high performance, long life, and reliability in a remote, outside plant location. This paper addresses the product design and manufacturing processes behind a 10 year valve regulated lead acid battery that meet the challenges imposed by the outside plant environment. In this environment, batteries are often installed in tight cubicles, allowing very little space for maintenance and limited air flow for cooling. The enclosures for these systems are often installed above ground without temperature controls. This uncontrolled environment exposes batteries to low temperatures, which reduce available capacity, and high temperatures, which reduce life. The remote nature of these systems combined with the sheer quantity of systems limits the availability of resources to perform scheduled maintenance routines. Finally, the limitation of available space for batteries combined with these other factors drives system designers to consider 10 year monobloc designs as an alternative to 20 year designs as the power solution in these harsh applications. While all of these new application sensitive demands are being placed on small valve regulated lead acid batteries, the reliability of the telecommunications network cannot be compromised.<>