Communication for technicians

Task 01
A)
APPLICATION NOTE FOR THE USE OF AA-SIZE NIMH BATTERIES

INTRODUCTION
An AA battery is a standard size of battery. Batteries of this size are commonly used in portable electronic devices. An AA battery is composed of a single electrochemical cell. The exact terminal voltage and capacity of an AA size battery depends on the cell chemistry. Some rechargeable cells are made in the AA size.

Nickel-metal hydride battery

A nickel-metal hydride cell , abbreviated NiMH, is a type of rechargeable battery similar to the nickel-cadmium cell. The NiMH battery uses a hydrogen -absorbing alloy for the negative electrode instead of cadmium. As in NiCd cells, the positive electrode is nickel oxyhydroxide (NiOOH). A NiMH battery can have two to three times the capacity of an equivalent size nickel-cadmium battery. Compared to the lithium-ion cell, the volumetric energy density is similar but self -discharge is higher.

Specific energy Energy density

30100(100 [1]) Wh/kg 140300(385[1]) Wh/L 30 %( 1-2% [1])/month 5001,000(1500 [1]) 1.2 V

Self-discharge rate Cycle durability -

Nominal cell voltage

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Advantages and Disadvantages of NiMH Batteries

Advantages

30 40 percent higher capacity over a standard NiCd. The NiMH has potential for yet higher energy densities. Less prone to memory than the NiCd. Periodic exercise cycles are required less often. Simple storage and transportation transportation conditions are not subject to regulatory control. Environmentally friendly contains only mild toxins; profitable for recy cling. Higher energy density Superior service performance at all drain rates Superior cold temperature performance Lower internal resistance Longer shelf life Greater resistance to leakage

Disadvantages

Limited service life if repeatedly deep cycled, especially at high load currents, the performance starts to deteriorate after 200 to 300 cycles. Shallow rather than deep discharge cycles are preferred. Limited discharge current although a NiMH battery is capable of delivering high discharge currents, repeated discharges with high load currents reduces the batterys cycle life. Best results are achieved with load currents of 0.2C to 0.5C (one fifth to one-half of the rated capacity).

USE OF BATTERY
Applications of NiMH electric vehicle batteries include all-electric plug-in vehicles such as the General Motors EV1, Honda EV Plus, Ford Ranger EV and Vectrix scooter. Hybrid vehicles such as the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, Ford Escape Hybrid, Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, and Honda Civic Hybrid also use them. NiMH technology is used extensively in rechargeable batteries for consumer electronics, and it will also be used on the Alstom Citadis low floor tram ordered for Nice, France; as well as the humanoid prototype robot ASIMO designed by Honda. NiMH Batt eries are also commonly used in Airsoft Guns

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History
The first consumer grade NiMH cells for smaller applications appeared on the market in 1989, the culmination of over two decades of research and development. [8] The earliest pioneering work on NiMH batteries essentially based on sintered Ti2Ni+TiNi+x alloys for the negative electrode and NiOOH -electrodes for the positives was performed at the Battelle -Geneva Research Center starting after its invention in 1967. The development work was sponsored over nearly two decades by Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart, Germany, and by Volkswagen AG within the framework of Deutsche Automobilgesellschaft. The batteries showed high specific energy up to 50 Wh/kg (180 kJ/kg), power density up to 1000 W/kg and a reasonabl e deep cycle life of 500 cycles (at 100% depth of discharge). Patent applications were filed in European countries (priority: Switzerland), United States and Japan and the patents transferred to Daimler-Benz.[9] Interest grew in the 1970s with the commerci alization of the Nickel hydrogen battery for satellite applications. Hydride technology promised an alternative much less bulky way to store the hydrogen. Research carried out by Philips Laboratories and France's CNRS developed new high -energy hybrid alloys incorporating rare earth metals for the negative electrode. However, these suffered from the instability of the alloys in alkaline electrolyte and consequently insufficient cycle life. Ovonic Battery Co. in Michigan altered and improved the Ti -Ni alloy structure and composition according to their patent and licensed NiMH batteries to over 50 companies worldwide. The "invented NiMH variation" of Ovonics consisted in special alloys with disordered alloy structure and specific multicomponent alloy compositions. Unfortunately linked to their composition, calendar and cycle life of such alloys always remain very low, and all NiMH batteries manufactured at the present time consist of AB 5-type rare earth metal alloys. Positive electrode development was done by Dr. Masahiko Oshitani from GS Yuasa Company, who was the first to develop high -energy paste electrode technology. The association of this high -energy electrode with high -energy hybrid alloys for the negative electrode led to the new environmentally friendl y high-energy NiMH cell. Currently, more than 2 million hybrid cars worldwide are running with NiMH batteries, [10] e.g., Prius, Lexus (Toyota), Civic, Insight (Honda), Fusion (Ford), and others. Many of these batteries are manufactured by PEVE (Panasonic) and Sanyo.

Communic ion for tec nicians

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(c)
Information so rces
Engineers use a wide of information in their everyday lives. This information sources are used to find the information for writing the above mentioned application note.

Internet
Internet in the main source used to search and get the above points for the application note. The following URL is used as the information sources. 1. http://www.maxellcanada.com/battery/nimh/NiMH_vs_Alkaline.htm 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NiMH Internet is the correct and right source to search and Get information about the batteries. All the information were saved in the internet for easy browsing and it cost less for us when searching in the internet. We can also save our time when we are using the internet. So the internet is the appropriate information source for the engineers to g et the information about the batteries.

Application note
The application note is usually briefly notes. An application note can be very useful in providing practical information that can help designers to avoid pitfalls that might occur when using a component. But it is very difficult to find application notes in our day to day life. So it is not the proper information source to find the informations about the batteries.

Data sheet and Data books

A data sheet is usually used for technical communication to describe technical characteristics of an item or product. It can be published by the manufacturer to help people choose proper item or product. We can find the information about the batteries in the data sheets and data books but internet is the main source to find the data sheets and datebooks. So we cant use these as the appropriate information sources.

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Engineering drawings
Engineering drawings are used to get the sample of products like size, layout, appearance, shape and nomenc lature. The purpose of such a drawing is to accurately and unambiguously capture all the geometric features of a product or a component. But here we cant get the information about the batteries. So it is not necessary to get information. Books Books are the good information source which contain all what we need. But finding the appropriate book that we want is very difficult. And a book is the vast collection of information so it takes long time to search and find datas. For an engineering task time i s a must so this in not an appropriate source of information.
Batteries sed in mobile phones are not sef l to write the application note beca se y

There is only one kind of battery used in mobile phones, so we cant compare the batteries, advantages and disadvantages and come to a conclusion using application note. So writing a n application note for mobile phone battery is useless.