NEWS
ALABC publishes results of three-year programme The Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) has published a factsheet on the benefits to the lead-acid industry of a three-year research programme the body carried out. This says its programme, which ran between 2013 and 2015, has produced ground-breaking results related to advanced leadacid battery technology. The ALABC is set for a change in direction in the next 2016 to 2018 programme of research where the emphasis will move away from high-profile demonstration projects and to further research on improving the performance
of lead acid batteries. The organization itself is about to be restructured and further details will be announced at the ABC meetings in Bangkok in September as well as preliminary announcements in August. Within the factsheet, the ALABC discussed the three most important achievements of the programme. The first was the development of a new understanding of carbon additives for lead batteries. “The information is highly valuable for researchers and engineers developing advanced lead batteries and alleviates the need for further studies in
this area,” said the consortium. Second, the programme has introduced cost-effective hybrid electric vehicle solutions for car manufacturers, with the most efficient automotive battery demonstration project of the ALABC being the development of a 48V micro/ mild hybrid vehicle with downsized engine with optimised performance using lead-carbon batteries. Its third achievement has been the improvement and life extension of batteries for photovoltaic systems used in renewable energy, it said. Separately ALABC announced that the recent
C&D Technologies’ CEO plans to boost lead acid battery output in revamp Pennsylvania headquartered battery manufacturer C&D Technologies plans to increase its lead-acid battery output and restore its reputation for technical quality as part of plans to revitalise the company, Armand Lauzon, the company’s new chief executive told Batteries International this spring. “This company enjoyed a very strong technical reputation in the 1990s and up until around five years ago,” he says. “There are
some fundamental things we will be doing differently to take us back to where we belong.” Lauzon plans to focus heavily on improving the company’s technology and technical ability. He has formed a technical advisory committee that will include leading technological representatives from a number of its facilities worldwide. “We’ll be meeting once a month and forming a technical agenda that will impact our factories, our
research and development and the types of projects we’re going to be working on. We will be keeping a keen eye on the marketplace,” he says. “There are a lot of very bright, long-term employees here, both technically and operationally and I’m going to leverage the technical synergy that exists in this company.” Armand’s restructuring will focus on getting back to basics, he says. He will be drawing on his
Saft reveals lead-acid drop-in battery replacement Battery manufacturer Saft released a lithiumion drop-in replacement of lead-acid batteries for powering military vehicles in May. The Xcelion 6T battery is the conclusion of a two year industrialization programme. During this,
Saft reduced the cost of the Xcelion 6T to increase its commercialization and create a versatile off-the-shelf product. Saft said that the battery leverages lithium-ion technology to offer benefits over lead-acid, such as longer life, higher energy density, and lower total cost of ownership. Thomas Alcide, president of Saft America and general manager of Saft’s Spe-
24 • Batteries International • Summer 2015
cialty Battery Group, said: “Saft developed a competitively priced Li-ion version of the traditional leadacid 6T battery found in nearly all military vehicles worldwide. By reducing the cost and time to build the Xcelion 6T battery, Saft is ready to offer this product to replace lead-acid batteries, not only on all military vehicles worldwide, but also for many commercial applications.”
additions of Chinese battery producers Chaowei Power and Tianneng Power and US carbon nanomaterial producer Black Diamond Structures have given the ALABC its largest membership in its 23 years of operation. Chaowei (which produces the brand name Chilwee Batteries) and Tianneng are two of China’s leading producers of lead-acid batteries for electric vehicles (including e-bikes) and motive power applications. Black Diamond Structures specializes in the production of a breakthrough form of modified carbon nanotubes (CNTs), called Molecular Rebar. background in the highly regulated world of aircraft engine components and aircraft engines to achieve what he describes as an uncompromising attitude to quality. “My background is in a world that’s highly regulated in terms of process control and process integrity. There’s no compromise — you’ve got to do it right every time,” he says. “Following the recipes, procedures, the discipline around process control, is a difference in many respects between winning and losing.” He said that he will enhance the emphasis with inthe organization on procedure compliance, process control and the throughput side of the business. “I’ve got a shopping list of things I want to correct but it’s a matter of ‘first things first’, he says. “I’ve got to get the factories running how I want them to be running and put a lot of focus on our manufacturing excellence; then I will start to focus on the technology agenda and our sales. “Those three areas will be my priorities over the next couple of months.”
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