Battery with encapsulated electrode plates

The present invention is directed to starved electrolyte batteries and, in particular to starved electrolyte batteries wherein the electrode plates are at least partially encapsulated within resilient fibrous mat separators that extend beyond the peripheral edges of the electrode plates to both encapsulate the electrode plates and provide electrolyte reservoirs external of the electrode plate stack. A starved electrolyte battery utilizes resilient fibrous mat electrode plate separators. The resilient electrode plate separators extend beyond the peripheral edges of the electrode plates in the plate stack(s) of the battery and a) encapsulate, at least the major surfaces and certain portions, preferably all, of the electrode plate edges, and b) form electrolyte reservoirs within the battery external of the plate stack(s). Preferably, the resilient fibrous mat separators are made of microfibers and may be essentially uniform in density throughout their thicknesses or may include one or two relatively high density, high tensile strength fibrous surface layer(s) and a relatively low density, more resilient fibrous layer integral with and, in one embodiment, intermediate the two surface layers.