Negative Expanders For Lead-Acid Battery Applications
Locations and Contacts-
UK Facility
Hammond Expanders UK, LLC, was started in 2000 when Hammond Group, Inc., purchased the Negex operation from Calder Industrial Materials (CIM). Negex had been blended and shipped from the Elswick Works in Newcastle. In 2003, a new production facility was built in Team Valley Trading Estate in Gateshead about 1 1/2 miles from the original operation at Elswick.
Originally registered as compliant with ISO 9001 in 2000, Hammond Expanders UK upgraded to ISO 9001:2000 in 2003 after the move to Team Valley. Their registar is BSI Management Systems. They hold certificate number FM56501 for compliance to BS EN ISO 9001:2000. The scope is the manufacture of battery additives.
Hammond Expanders UK pre-blends and ships Negex and Hammond Expanders throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. Negex expander blends may include fibre as well as barium sulfate, carbon black and sodium lignosulfonates. There are standard recipes for automotive and industrial expanders. Also, Hammond Expanders UK can blend to customer specific blends.
Expanders produced in the UK facility are packaged in plastic bags with weights suitable for battery manufacturers to add just one bag per batch of battery paste. The 2.0 to 25.0 kg net weight plastic bags are placed in boxes with a total net weight of approximately 500 kg. Boxes will have from 20 to 250 bags in them. Bags are normally packed to a tolerance of plus or minus 0.3 kg. A statistical study of bag weight variability in June 2004 showed a Cpk of 2.21 Cpk=smallest difference to specification limit from average divided by 3 times the standard deviation. A recent improvement has been a new bag check weight scale that is calibrated to plus or minus 0.002 kg.
Boxes are labeled with the batch recipe name and the batch identification as well as the size and number of bags inside. The batch identification (yy/ww/bb-box) shows the year/week of the year/batch of the week-box of the batch.
Samples are taken from the product while material is being bagged. There are samples taken at the beginning, middle and end of each batch. These samples are analyzed to measure the ash residue. Ash residue results are compared to a theoretical or customer specified range. Passing the ash residue test verifies that the material was charged correctly. Some samples are sent to Hammond Expanders USA for trace element analysis. This is done to prove that the information provided by suppliers is accurate.
