China battery maker CALB may be small by CATL standards, but it punches with new ideas. Its latest offering is a battery cell with both terminals at one end, suggesting a u-shape battery flow. Although with that restriction, its round cells look like any other when viewed from a short distance. Is this an innovation or will it become something meaningful?
Basic Structure Of CALB’s U-Shape Battery
CALB located both the plus and minus poles at one end of the battery housing. The positive one is slightly raised, so nothing changed there. However the negative pole is different, because it is on the outer edge of the structure. In this way there are similarities with a prismatic cell.
CALB has shared few other details beyond the drawing that we feature above. Although they do observe their u-shape battery features new chemistry, and the current flow paths reduce by 70%. And this in turn reduces internal resistance by 50% they say.
It’s worth noting that a lower internal resistance means the cell heats up less, opening the door to faster charging in perhaps as little as ten minutes. Cell densities of various versions will vary between 200 and 300 watt hours per kg, attractive to electric vehicle owners.
CALBs New Design Promises Lower Manufacturing Cost
Clean Technica believes a production line would require 70% fewer welding machines than alternative designs. Lower manufacturing cost would mean cheaper batteries, suggesting CALB has a winner here.
“We have made a disruptive innovation to the structure of the cylindrical battery, by introducing a u-shape battery structure,” a CALB company spokesperson claims. At this point in time there is no way of knowing whether this product will enter market. However, it is bound to make its influence known in one way or another.
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