Domestic technical textiles Industry Segment-wise consumption of ...

Absorbent Glass mat Battery separators
Battery separator is a porous sheet placed between the positive and negative electrodes in a liquid
electrolyte, a gel electrolyte or a molten salt battery. Its function is to prevent physical contact of the
positive and negative electrodes while serving as an electrolyte reservoir to enable free ionic transport.
According to the structure, the separator can be divided as micro porous and non-woven.
An ideal battery separator should have the properties of high porosity, small mean pore diameter,
oxidation resistance, puncture resistance, thermal dimensional stability and freedom from harmful
chemical contaminants, favourable voltage characteristics, retardation of antimony transfer,
electrochemical compatibility and prevention of dendrite growth.
The battery separators are made of PVC, PE and non-woven glass mats (Absorbent glass mats or
AGM). The glass mats are known as AGM (Absorbable Glass Mat). The battery separator market is
dominated by PVC although there is a gradual migration to PE separators. In India, the storage
battery industry is slowly shifting from PVC separators to Polyethylene separators. Glass mat with
PVC or polythylene is mostly used in all industrial batteries and in a few cases in automobile batteries
depending on the function, customer requirement and price.
Market dynamics and key growth drivers of batteries market in India
The storage batteries industry can be classified as Industrial batteries and automotive batteries.
Industrial batteries
Industrial batteries with a market size of Rs 4,000 crore include Lead-acid batteries (including VRLA
or valve-regulated lead acid batteries), Lithium and nickel-cadmium batteries. Of this market, 40% is
unorganised. The Industrial Batteries Segment can be broken up into the Infrastructure market
(Railways, Telecom and Power), Submarine batteries and fast-moving industrial batteries (UPS and
Inverters). VRLA batteries are the most important kind of batteries used in the Industrial Segment.
The growth in this sector has been driven by surge in demand from the telecom and UPS segment,
which is likely to continue in the coming years.
The Industrial batteries i.e., VRLA type of batteries are the prominent users of non-woven Glass mat
battery separators, since such batteries are used for heavy-duty works.
Automotive batteries