Abstract:
The battery is the main part of the electric system in an automobile. Without the battery, the
engine cannot be started with the starting motor. The battery supplies current for starting a motor
which is normally called a self-starter. The ignition system cannot work without a battery for firing
the engine. It will also supply current for various lights and control such as head and rear lights,
the door, cabin and bonnet lights, the indicators and control lights and switches. Besides these,
some other accessories such as heater, radio or stereo are also operated on the battery. The
function of a battery is to store electricity in the form of chemical energy and when required,
convert back into electrical energy. Motor vehicles use lead-acid batteries which are interspersed.
The plates are immersed in a solution of dilute sulphuric acid called “electrolyte”. For
compactness, the plates are placed close together and separators are used to reduce the chance
of shorting their places. The capacity of the battery to store electricity can be increased by having
more parts or by increasing the area. To make use of all the surface of the positive plates, the
negative plates outnumber the positives plates by one so that each cell contains an uneven
number of plates, like seven, nine, eleven etc.
