Sakuu launches printed batteries

US additive manufacturing and solid-state battery company Sakuu has reported that it has “successfully and consistently 3D printed fully functional performant batteries in custom shapes and sizes” and that it is on-track for commercial-scale production of printed batteries in major industries including E-mobility, aerospace, electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage.

Sakuu said the batteries were printed as patterned cells containing patterned openings for thermal management, in a fully dry process, at the company’s Silicon Valley battery pilot line facility.

A Sakuu statement said the company had “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.”