Amionx raises funds to construct lithium-ion batteries that don’t blow up

Amionx has raised a spherical of funding to construct protected lithium-ion batteries. These are the type that don’t blow up.

That’s a superb factor as many people keep in mind tales of batteries exploding or catching fireplace through the years. And this know-how, dubbed SafeCore, got here from navy roots the place the thought was to make batteries that didn’t explode when hit by a bullet.

That is nonetheless a difficulty, as GM announced in September that it needed to recall each Chevy Bolt EV and EUV mannequin as a result of the faulty lithium-ion batteries had been at risk of catching fireplace.

Enhancing batteries is a long-term objective for tech innovators, however progress has been frightfully sluggish. Nonetheless, it’s attention-grabbing to see Amionx emerge, in addition to new battery tech from nanotechnology agency Nanom, which says it may well make batteries final 9 instances longer.

I talked in regards to the tech with Amionx CEO Jenna King and chief working officer Invoice Davidson (a former Qualcomm advertising exec). Amionx’s patented SafeCore know-how acts like a circuit breaker to stop explosions in lithium-ion batteries.

The way it works

Amionx provides a cloth layer in between two vital parts of the battery. It’s delicate to present, voltage, and temperature. The layer is utilized with very same coating machines they have already got within the manufacturing facility. When the temperate reaches a sure stage, the layer separates and cuts off the stream of electrical energy. It’s like a fuse that isn’t resettable.

Carlsbad, California-based Amionx sees the marketplace for lithium-ion batteries as having three most important product classes: electrical automobiles, vitality storage, and client merchandise – particularly cell telephones, laptops and energy instruments. SafeCore know-how is relevant to all battery chemistries (together with stable state, and throughout smartphones, EVs, vape pens, family home equipment, and so forth.) whereas nonetheless delivering nice battery efficiency.

Origins

Above: Amionx’s SafeCore batteries are coming in 2022 and 2023 for industrial clients.

Picture Credit score: Amionx

The origins of the invention got here from a Division of Vitality grant and one other from the U.S. Military. The Military wanted a battery that would maintain a direct hit by a bullet, and that was as a result of troopers needed to carry heavy battery packs to energy issues like their evening imaginative and prescient goggles and their wi-fi communications.  A few universities did among the early work — the College of California at San Diego and UC Merced.

“If SafeCore wasn’t in a battery [that got hit by a bullet], the soldier would have two minutes to get it off their physique earlier than it could go up in flames,” Davidson stated. “That was the beginning of the invention. The truth that it was an precise working product was what bought me.”

Amionx spun out of its mum or dad firm American Lithium Vitality in late 2016. King was a former company legal professional and an investor in American Lithium Vitality, and she or he determined to affix Amionx as its CEO as a result of she noticed the widespread industrial functions for it. And he or she was glad the corporate didn’t must construct its personal factories to make the batteries. American Lithium Vitality nonetheless makes batteries for the Military.

“We initially stopped to validate the know-how with a number of totally different functions,” King stated. “It definitely took time to validate it and make it work with a number of totally different chemistries.”

Al that prototyping took a variety of time.

The funding

The corporate didn’t disclose the precise quantity raised. The preliminary par t of the funding spherical got here from Qualcomm Ventures, an current investor, in addition to new traders Hongkou Administration and Inherent Group. The first goal for the funds shall be so as to add sources to speed up the switch of its patented SafeCore know-how to lithium-ion battery producers.

Apart from elevating cash, the corporate can be discovering extra licensees who can take its know-how and make it in their very own factories and promote it beneath their very own names, for a charge.

“Amionx has a easy, but elegant resolution for serving to scale back the variety of fires and explosions in lithium-ion batteries,” stated Peter Zhou, managing companion of Hongkou, in an announcement. “The corporate has demonstrated the effectiveness of SafeCore for electrical automobiles, client
electronics, and different functions, and SafeCore is definitely built-in into current manufacturing processes. We’re excited to see the know-how commercialized throughout end- markets and play an necessary position in making certain confidence in battery security.”

SafeCore’s advantages

SafeCore stated that integrating SafeCore’s tech right into a battery doesn’t enhance its value, nor does it require a giant capital funding. It produces an extended lifetime for the battery and longer shelf life as nicely. It permits for the design of smaller and lighter batteries, and it’s relevant to different chemistries comparable to nano-silicon and lithium metallic in addition to stable state.

“It’s very elegant, however a quite simple resolution,” Davidson stated. “We require no new processes or battery factories, so no change in course of, no capital bills, after which little or no if any enhance to the invoice of supplies.”

The corporate lately introduced Veken as a brand new battery producer, and it has licensed its SafeCore tech to licensees like Stanley Black & Decker. Amionx can’t identify its different licensees. The corporate has lower than 50 workers. Industrial merchandise are anticipated in 2022 and 2023.