Absorbed  Glass Mat (AGM) separators are being increasingly more relied upon in automotive and industrial applications. H&V is recognized as a market leader in the designing and global production  of AGM separators. One challenge many customers encounter during AGM battery assembly is the slow and uneven filling of acid electrolyte.  Slow filling reduces the battery assembly speed while uneven acid distribution in the AGM separator and plates that can cause dry spots and black spots on the plates during battery formation. Uneven acid distribution can degrade battery performance.

A key factor affecting the acid filling speed is the gas pocket trapped toward the centre of the plates and AGM separator. The gaseous species in the pocket is air and possibly carbon dioxide generated by the reaction of the acid with carbonate species in the plates. The gaseous species have the tendency to hinder the flow of the acid into the centre area, unless removed from the battery.

H&V has recently developed PowerFillTM AGM to solve these challenges by enhancing the surface of the separator to create open channels. With the open channels on the PowerFillTM AGM separator, the gaseous species in the pocket can escape more easily from the battery during the acid filling process, thereby allowing acid to flow quickly and evenly into the centre of the plates/AGM. The PowerFillTM patented technology can be applied to various types of AGM, and the resultant separators still retain the same strength and compression retention behaviour of the base AGM.