Lithium Ion/Polymer Battery Technology
One adventurous explorer’s dream – a plane that can fly without a drop of fuel – is now reality thanks to the Solar Impulse project.
The project originated when Bertrand Piccard started researching a way to fly without harming the environment, after realizing that his hot air balloon required 3.5 tons of fuel to fly. Today the 1.5 ton Solar Impulse is flying around the world, powered only by solar power.
Using 17,000 high-performance solar cells on top of the wings and Kokam’s energy-dense lithium-ion batteries the plane can just fly during the day, but at night as well, without a drop of fuel.
Kokam’ s Batteries were proven to not only most efficient, but also lightest and safest.
The Solar Impulse completed its first flight in 2009. In 2010, it became the world’s first solar panel powered aircraft to be flown at night with a man on board.
When it began flying at 7 a.m. in Switzerland and was successfully landed at 9 a.m. the next day. A record was set in that day. It was the longest flight made by an aircraft powered solely by solar panels and Kokam’ lithium-ion batteries.
James Cameron, the prominent film director, had a childhood dream of exploring the deepest parts of the ocean. On March 26, 2012, James Cameron plunged in a craft/submarine called Deep Sea Challenger to the “Challenger Deep”. This was only the second manned expedition to the bottom of Earth’s deepest known place.
How was this possible?
In order to achieve his goal, James Cameron needed a battery which could withstand the high pressure found at ocean depths. His team began the search for batteries which could withstand up to 20,000psi of pressure. After selecting several candidates and testing them,
One of Kokam’s superior Lithium-ion batteries was selected.
The Kokam Lithium-ion batteries used in the Deep Sea Challenger had an extremely high energy density, reducing the space needed to install the batteries.
James submerged at 4:00 AM on March 26th 2012 and reached the “Challenger Deep” in 2 hours and 36 minutes in a record-breaking dive of 35,787 feet. He then collected various samples for 3 hours,which were to be used for the study of Marine Biology, Microbiology, and Marine Geology.
The ‘Deep Sea Challenger’ project focused on“mapping the seafloor that no one has ever seen and for the most part no one has ever mapped. So we are learning something about a brand new place.
- James Cameron, film director and deep sea explorer -