Sakuu Corporation (earlier posts) has 3D printed fully functional, high-performance batteries in custom sizes and shapes 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 exciting moment 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’s invention is able to deliver low-cost, high-speed manufacturing capabilities coupled with flexibility of shape and form. It also delivers batteries in core categories that are most important to customers and clients.
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. This allows for more efficient use of battery cells volume through new thermal dynamic regulation pathways. This allows
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 can reduce supply chain time and provide key safety and performance attributes.
Sakuu will also license its own battery chemistries.
Solid-state and Li-metal can be made with traditional roll-to–roll manufacturing, or gigafactories using Kavian manufacturing.