When requiring a compact primary (non-rechargeable) battery for a military device it’s worth considering the ULTRALIFE UBI-5390XC which uses ULTRALIFE's Lithium Manganese Dioxide / Carbon Monoflouride hybrid cell technology bringing unparalleled performance.
We’ve all been there... Just as you turn on your laptop to deliver the key presentation of your entire career, the infernal machine runs out of power and you are left with a blank screen. It’s not possible! You checked the power gauge before you left the office and it said 80% remaining!
If you work in the battery industry, you have probably already used exactly this analogy to describe the importance of accurate gauging. It’s certainly a story familiar to Carl Banks, one of Accutronics’ fuel gauging experts.
Amongst Carl’s key responsibilities is ensuring that all of Accutronics’ batteries are configured to provide the most accurate gauging possible.
The fuel gauge is a vital part of a professional battery solution. The more accurate it is, the better it can track capacity and the more realistic the device’s predicted run time will be. In mission critical situations, like medical devices and military equipment this can be crucial.
“Of course, there are some applications where the fuel gauge isn’t as important as it is on a medical ventilator or pair of night vision goggles,” explained Carl. “But our customers are leaders in their chosen markets and they demand precise and reliable information whether the battery is brand new or many years old. This is why we test our batteries under various usage scenarios, continually collecting the data that is needed to set-up the fuel gauge.
“The most significant environmental factor that affects fuel gauge accuracy is temperature,” Carl continued. “However, we also have to address non-environmental issues such as charge and discharge rates and cycle life. Put simply, the more the battery is used the more its capacity drops over time, and the fuel gauge must account for this behaviour.”
“We use Texas Instruments’ gauges in many of our products,” Carl went on. “The data we gather from our tests is analysed and used in the programming of the fuel gauges’ FLASH memory. The whole process can take many weeks but it ensures we achieve the best possible precision.”
Carl was keen to emphasise the importance of the ‘impedance tracking’ fuel gauge technology that Accutronics use in their smart battery developments. This technology allows the battery fuel gauge to continually make adjustments to its remaining capacity prediction - even when the battery is not being used, by measuring the battery impedance during periods of inactivity. Older ‘coulomb counting’ gauges had to ‘learn’ about a battery by establishing the top of charge and discharge limits first. As a result, a battery fuel gauge that uses impedance tracking is more accurate and can be used for longer without needing to be calibrated – meaning customers can rely on the fuel gauge information and don’t need to spend time fully charging and discharging their devices to obtain accurate information.
So, next time you’re sitting in front of a redundant laptop, wishing you had a more accurate power gauge, spare a thought for Carl and his quest for fuel gauge nirvana, which helps ensure that genuinely mission critical applications don’t suffer the same problems as your laptop.
The Ultralife 2590 product family consists of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries, chargers & charging systems, and a series of cables & connectors enabling out-of-the-box "Plug and Play" rechargeable power.
Start of an Era
The Ultralife Lithium 9Volt battery was launched in 1991 as the world’s longest lasting lithium 9V battery. The battery was based on lithium manganese dioxide chemistry which leads to high energy density and voltage that remains very stable throughout the discharge. Since the initial launch, there have been over 100 million units sold worldwide. The battery immediately gained acceptance into critical markets such as smoke detectors, security sensors, and medical telemetry.
The Next Generation
Twenty years later, Ultralife launched a new version of the product, with enhanced features and improvements over the original version.
When you've purchased Inspired Energy batteries it's important to be kept informed of the accessories available to get the most out of your investment so in this blog we're taking a look at one of the charging options.
Accutronics are proud to announce the addition of ULTRALIFE lead acid replacement Lithium Iron Phosphate (LIFePO4) batteries to our arsenal of high energy battery solutions. This extensive range is specifically targeted at replacing lead acid batteries in a range of mission critical applications. ULTRALIFE LiFePO4 products provide superior performance compared to lead acid batteries making them the perfect solution when high energy, safety, reliability and extended lifetime are required.
The consumer electronics industry has embraced obsolescence as a way of increasing profits. Smartphones, laptops, and media players are designed to fail, central to this is the rechargeable battery. Many manufacturers now seal the battery into the device, so rather than simply swapping the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery when it reaches its end of life, users are strong-armed into buying a new product. However, when it comes to medical devices obsolescence on such a large scale is unacceptable.
Accutronics develops batteries for professional markets where the requirements for size, weight and environmental performance are very high on the list of customer needs. As mechanical engineering manager David Asplin works closely with our clients throughout the custom battery design process.
Symbiosis is interaction between two organisms to the advantage of both. There are many examples of this in the natural and business worlds and battery & comms systems specialist Ultralife Corporation’s purchase of UK battery original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Accutronics, at the start of 2016, is a perfect example.
John Kotter’s eight steps for leading change has become mandatory reading for any business shaking things up. Ultralife’s acquisition of Accutronics is definitely a change, and together both companies have impressive goals that we hope will change the way design engineers view the incorporation of smart batteries into their projects. So, several months after the relationship between Ultralife and Accutronics became formal, I found it interesting to look back on the process and compare it to Kotter's ideal model. Kotter's eight step process is:
According to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), the UK manufacturing sector risks stagnation. This warning comes from the BCC’s Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) which saw manufacturing export sales drop to their lowest levels since 2009 in the final quarter of 2015. Rob Phillips, sales and marketing director of professional battery manufacturer Accutronics, investigates how the industry can recover.
