The control of the growth or the corrosion creep of a Pb-based alloy grid is very important for extending the life of a lead-acid battery. In this study, the creep behavior of various Pb-Ca alloys was investigated in air, in a highly concentrated H2SO4 solution, and in a highly concentrated H2SO4 solution with the intermittent electrifying to the specimen electrode. For Pb-Ca alloys with Ca content ranging from 0 to 0.08 mass%, the steady state creep rate decreased exponentially with increasing of Ca content. The decrease of the creep rate is deeply related to the improvement of the material strength by refining of the grain size. On the other hand, the fracture time of Pb-0.08mass%Ca-Sn alloys was extended with increasing Sn content in the range of 0 to 1.60 mass%. The alloying of Sn may be effective in controlling the third creep or the accelerating creep by means of solution hardening. The steady creep rates of Pb-0.08mass%Ca and Pb-0.08mass%Ca-1.20mass%Sn alloys followed Norton's formula and the material coefficients were 9.1 and 9.2 respectively. The coefficients also reveal that the creep of these Pb-Ca base alloys proceeds according to the dislocation creep mechanism. Therefore, it can be explained that the refining of grain size by Ca and the solution hardening by Sn are very efficient in controlling the dislocation movement, to improve the creep resistance of the Pb-base alloys.
