EVLN(Battery developers envision polymers in different shapes)

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EVLN(Battery developers envision polymers in different shapes)
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News Batteries take on new shapes Roger Renstrom PLASTICS NEWS
CORRESPONDENT 02/21/2000 Plastics News 21 Copyright (C) 2000 Crain
Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

CORONADO, CALIF. -- Battery developers envision polymers as a way to
form power sources in different shapes.

Generally, a laptop computer uses a lithium ion battery, but lithium
ion polymer and lithium polymer variations are beginning to emerge.
Most of the proprietary concepts are working through experimental and
market-introduction phases.  PolyStor Corp. of Livermore, Calif.,
plans to add a curved lithium ion polymer battery cell to its product
line in late 2000. SelfCharge Inc.  of Redmond, Wash., has worked with
PolyStor on the product's development and marketing issues.

Two potential corporate users are assessing the flexible product's
feasibility now, David Nierescher, chief technical officer for
SelfCharge, said in an interview at the firm's exhibit at the Portable
Design 2000 show in Coronado. Cellular telephones, portable data
collection equipment and personal digital assistants are target
applications.

The battery is "formed to whatever shape a packaging person may
require," he said. PolyStor will wind a polymer between anodes and
cathodes and eliminate the requirement for a battery can. Seven
alternating layers of polymer and aluminum foil form the outer
vacuum-sealed pouch.

Electrofuel Inc. of Toronto is manufacturing a rechargeable lithium
ion super polymer battery that has greater energy density than a
typical lithium ion polymer battery, according to Japan's Nomura
Research. In October, an industry conference and consulting firm,
Arthur D. Little Inc., presented Electrofuel with a components award
for its PowerPad 160, a battery pack that incorporates the density and
can deliver 15 hours of run time for a notebook computer.

Battery Engineering Inc. of Canton, Mass., has a line of rechargeable
lithium ion polymer batteries in a flexible and thin prismatic
package.

A proprietary solid polymer electrolyte is used in the battery, which
is available in customized sizes. Battery Engineering is a subsidiary
of Hitachi Maxell Ltd.

Meanwhile in Japan, a Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. unit is producing thin
lithium polymer batteries with aluminum alloy exteriors, initially for
Japan's cellular phone market, at a rate of 50,000 cells per month.

A ramp-up aims to hit 400,000 cells per month during 2000's second
quarter. No schedule was available for when the Sanyo technology will
enter the United States. Photo Caption: Nierescher
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