Sakuu Corporation (earlier article) has 3D-printed fully functional, high performance batteries in custom shapes and sizes every year since December 2022. These batteries were printed as patterned cells containing patterned openings for thermal management, in a fully dry process, at Sakuu’s Silicon Valley battery pilot line facility.
This marks a first-of-its-kind manufacturing achievement and is an important step towards Sakuu’s planned commercial-scale production of next-generation SwiftPrint batteries, including solid-state batteries, from its Kavian platform in gigafactories worldwide, the company said.
Our development shows that the Kavian platform can enable commercial-scale, sustainable production of a wide range of battery technologies from lithium-ion to lithium metal to even solid-state batteries—whereas traditional methods of advanced cell manufacturing continually run into core impediments that prevent mass-scale production.
Additionally, our printing process allows for significant increases in the energy density of a battery. Finally, our platform can customize the form factor of the battery—whereby the battery itself can become part of product design via customized shapes and sizes. This is an important moment that has huge implications for advanced battery manufacturing.
—Karl Littau, Chief Technology Officer at Sakuu
Sakuu has invented a fully industrialized process for printing batteries using a proprietary multi-material, multi-layer approach in a parallel and dry process, instead of slow layer-on-layer printing or screen-printing—inherently wet processes that require significant energy to remove unwanted solvents and are susceptible to poor printing quality and unreliable production.
Sakuu can provide low-cost, high speed manufacturing capability and flexibility in form and shape. In addition, it delivers core categories of batteries that matter to clients and customers.
For example, Sakuu’s first printed batteries have demonstrated successful cycling performance at C/5, IC current rates, and expectations are to achieve high energy density at 800–1000 Wh/L.
Utilizing proprietary lithium metal battery chemistry, Sakuu’s printing process starts with raw material and ends with a ready-to-use patterned battery. The resulting patterned battery printing allows for a better use of the battery cell volume and new pathways in thermal dynamic control. This allows for a more efficient use of battery cell volume with new pathways in thermal dynamic regulation.
Integration of sensors, fixturing, and thermal transport routes
as well as regulation through the patterned design—especially when thin sub-cell battery structures are stacked with identical in alignment.
Sakuu’s Kavian platform will be sold to other battery manufacturers as well as leading automotive, e-mobility, and aerospace manufacturers. Mass-producing batteries is a way to reduce the supply chain, gain critical cell performance and safety attributes, as e-mobility and aerospace manufacturers can also achieve inherent material and energy savings and maximize product design innovation.
Sakuu will also license its own battery chemistries.
Li-metal, solid-state can be produced using traditional roll to roll manufacturing or gigafactories that use Kavian manufacturing.