Sakuu has announced that its Kavian additive manufacturing platform can dry-print lithium-ion battery cathodes with leading cycle life using existing high-nickel chemistry. The company claims that cells manufactured via Kavian’s fully dry process retained 83 percent of their original charge capacity after 4,000 cycles, surpassing typical standards for EV batteries.

According to Sakuu, the tested battery cell used a 1 Ah configuration, graphite anode and a fully dry-printed NCM811 (nickel cobalt manganese) cathode. The cell underwent cycling at 1 C charge and 1 C discharge rates. The company compares this longevity favorably to industry benchmarks, which require standard NCM cells to surpass 2,000 cycles with at least 80 percent capacity retention for minimum EV application viability.

Sakuu says the Kavian platform enables the dry printing of both anodes and cathodes with traditional chemistries, such as nickel-cobalt-aluminum, lithium-iron-phosphate, lithium-titanate, graphite and silicon-graphite. It can also adapt to new chemistries like aluminum-ion, sodium-ion and solid-state battery materials.

Kavian is also capable of dry printing supercapacitor electrodes, addressing growing power management needs in applications such as AI data centers. The platform’s process eliminates hazardous solvents and water, reducing manufacturing floor space by 60 percent, lowering operating costs by 30 percent, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 55 percent, and reducing capital equipment costs by 20 percent.

The company reports that it has already supplied hundreds of meters of dry electrode material to customers and is working to fulfill initial orders for the Kavian system.

“Our extensive testing confirms that Kavian’s dry manufacturing process can be reliably trusted to deliver a product that will meet or exceed the capabilities of current wet processes,” said Robert Bagheri, Sakuu founder and CEO. “This again dispels any doubts as to the suitability of using a dry process for printing lithium-ion battery electrodes.”

Source: Sakuu