Sakuu, a California-based manufacturing company, has opened its new Silicon Valley engineering hub. The opening advances Sakuu’s plans for a “3D printing platform gigafactory, dubbed Sakuu G-One”.
但是3D如何以及为什么要打印电池？我要求Sakuu的总经理电池业务部门Arwed Niestroj回答一些问题。
The new building spans 79,000 square feet and serves as an engineering hub where teams are dedicated to battery, engineering, material science, R&D, and additive manufacturing work. The facility will contain the scaled-up 3D printing operations for battery production and additional manufacturing platforms for medical devices, IoT sensors, and other electrical devices. Sakuu says all manufacturing is conducted in a sustainable manner.
Speaking about the opening, CEO Robert Bagheri said, “Sakuu is committed to building an extremely talented workforce that wants to be part of our reinvention of sustainable energy production. We are on a mission to build a company and brand that is driven by transformative products that can leave an impactful legacy for societal and environmental change.”
3DPI: How do you 3D print a battery?
Arwed Niestroj：在最高级别上，Sakuu的独特技术，流程和物质使用是有充分理由的专有。您可能想象的，3D打印固态电池是一家非常创新的企业。但是从更基本的角度来看，电池打印需要一个3D打印平台。我们称我们的卡维安。
The Kavian platform integrates multiple processes and materials in a single platform to print fully functioning batteries at-scale. The Kavian platform can print ceramic, glass, metals, and polymer — in the same layer. The platform uses binder jetting for larger areas, and distinct material jetting for finer details. Conventional additive manufacturing processes perform each 3D printing step in series. Whereas, Kavian performs all steps in parallel, enabling a streamlined model that saves energy, cost, labor, materials, and time, while also increasing quality and reliability.
3DPI: Why would you 3D print a battery?
Arwed Niestroj：传统的卷到滚动电池制造具有明显的局限性：能源使用和碳排放，大型工厂占地面积，材料废物和效率低下，供应链依赖性，无法自定义电池形状和尺寸，高工具成本，高工具成本，扩展约束。甚至可以大规模使用的化学类型的障碍。这些只是生产固态电池的一些挑战，Sakuu的Kavian平台解决了所有这些痛点。
It produces cells sustainably and cost-effectively at high volume with greater supply chain resilience via localized gigafactories and a production model that circumvents common supply chain issues. By producing batteries through this novel additive manufacturing process, the cells can be made domestically and at scale to quickly supply industries facing surges in demand, such as electric vehicle manufacturers.
Kavian平台中使用的材料可以被分解和重复使用，从而导致更可持续的生产，而材料废物不到1％。
The benefits add up impressively: With Kavian we anticipate 69% fewer manufacturing process steps, 44% smaller factory footprints, 33% lower manufacturing costs, and 23% lower CapEx compared to traditional roll-to-roll battery manufacturing. Customization flexibility is also a core benefit of 3D printing batteries.
Kavian平台的独特AM功能允许自定义的电池形状和尺寸，这使电池能够成为核心产品设计不可或缺的一部分（与繁琐的组件相反）。定制的印刷电池还可以提供提高的性能，节省重量，并更好地利用产品设计中的空“死”空间 - 例如，填充传统电池无法使用的手机。以简单的例子，一双漂亮的新智能烟囱上的整个左臂可能是印刷电池，而塑料则是包含常规电池插入物的塑料。
3DPI: What makes Sakuu the best company to undertake the production of batteries?
Arwed Niestroj: On an existential level, we start with an unyielding commitment to our planet. This is our driving force, and it’s why Sakuu employees are so dedicated to pioneering technologies that don’t yet exist but ought to.
We’re on a mission to create ingenious tools and products that will transform industries, help other companies, conserve precious resources, and reduce humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels. Secondly, and an extrapolation to the first point, we want to innovate, disrupt, and amaze. We’re here to make a better future happen. Thirdly, and core to the question: We have the expertise.
Sakuu的创始团队来自丰富的半导体行业背景，在将复杂设备的大规模生产栩栩如生方面取得了公认的成就。我们的领导能力指导整个公司的精雷竞技官网登录神，具有深刻的经验，以严格和对精确技术生产所需的细节的严格关注。最后，我们的电池化学家目前正在取得无与伦比的结果。例如，我们最近在非印刷电池线中获得了800WH/L和高C速率的新基准，这表明了具有新颖的电池化学成分的能力，我们可以将其定位为在平台打印中合并。
3DPI：Sakuu的十年愿景是什么？
Arwed Niestroj: A decade from now the battery and energy landscape will have been transformed, and we’re just at the cusp of that revolution now. 2023 will see the delivery of Sakuu’s first-generation, ultra-safe solid state battery (SSB) to a range of customers in the e-mobility and energy storage sectors. We also anticipate breaking ground on the first of several planned Sakuu gigawatt factories worldwide.
By 2028, we anticipate a target annual cell output of 60GWh via our gigafactories. Delivery of our industry-leading batteries at-scale will have big implications for the $200 billion EV industry. The arrival of a safe, sustainable, and high-performance SSB could solve a plague of supply chain and safety issues in the sector, initiating advancement beyond today’s common but limiting lithium-ion battery utilization.
我们设想最终客户，产品用户，故意寻求在内部拥有Sakuu电池的产品，因为我们的产品代表：领先的性能，最终安全性和关键的可持续性优势。我们10年计划的一部分固有地包括我们的Kavian平台系列，无论是用于电池的生产，还是为在储能之外打印其他复杂设备的人，在全球服务中满足所有行业公司的规模生产需求。
For example, we have a division at Sakuu called Advanced Platform Solutions. They focus on additive manufacturing innovation outside of energy storage, working on an array of cutting-edge projects that only the Kavian platform can solve. We’re excited for the next decade and how we can make a tremendous impact.
Elsewhere, Blackstone Resources plans to profit from a3D printed sodium-ion battery它预计将于2025年推出。此外，6K正在支持锂离子电池technology with a recent funding round providing $102 million.
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特色图片显示Sakuu电池组。通过Sakuu的图像。
