Claims
- 1. A process for preparing a helium tight composite hollow fiber/plug-form tubesheet structure having utility in a high temperature battery cell, said process comprising:
- a. providing a plurality of laterally spaced apart, ceramic, hollow fiber lengths in the form of a bundle in which end portions of said lengths constitute a brush in which they are disposed in a generally parallel array and are free to flex,
- b. providing a slurry of a powdered ceramic in a liquid,
- c. forming a coherent body of said slurry in which said fiber end portions are potted by dipping said fiber end portions in said slurry and constricting said brush to a reduced diameter such that the average distance between adjacent fiber end portions is about 1/2 or less of the average distance between the fiber lengths in the undipped portion of said bundle, said slurry being caused by capillary attraction to flow into any of said fiber end portions which are open, to a limited extent which is substantially greater for said end portions of any fiber lengths which may be incompetent and said body being converted, by drying, heating and cooling, to a solid ceramic tubesheet through which said potted fiber portions pass in sealing engagement therewith and which together with said portions constitutes said helium tight composite tubesheet structure.
- 2. The process of claim 1 in which said bundle is rotated about its long axis and is subjected to vibration, while said dipping and diameter reduction is carried out.
- 3. The process of claim 1 comprising, as part of said construction, forming at least one encircling tie around the dipped brush.
- 4. The process of claim 3 comprising allowing the dipped and tie-encircled brush to partly dry and then dipping it in the same or a different such slurry to form an outer coating of slurry thereon.
- 5. The process of claim 1 including removing a terminal portion of said structure, the length of the removed portion being such as to include the tubesheet material in the lumens of the competent fibers but not such as to unplug any fibers which are incorpetent.
- 6. The process of claim 2 including removing a terminal portion of said structure, the length of the removed portion being such as to include the tubesheet material in the lumens of the competent fibers but not such as to unplug any fibers which are incompetent.
- 7. The process of claim 3 including removing a terminal portion of said structure, the length of the removed portion being such as to include the tubesheet material in the lumens of the competent fibers but not such as to unplug any fibers which are incompetent.
- 8. The process of claim 4 including removing a terminal portion of said structure, the length of the removed portion being such as to include the tubesheet material in the lumens of the competent fibers but not such as to unplug any fibers which are incompetent.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This is a divisional of application Ser. No. 635,778, filed July 30, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,289, issued June 10, 1986.
US Referenced Citations (6)
Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
635778 |
Jul 1984 |
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