Nov 3 2010
Contour Energy Systems, Inc. an innovative portable power company commercializing next-generation battery systems, today announced the company has been awarded a new US patent for its proprietary Fluorinetic™ production process and fluorinated multi-layered carbon nanomaterials.
These breakthrough technologies will produce significantly longer-lasting portable power solutions with greater power and energy densities than traditional lithium batteries. The new patent (US 7794880) is the latest in Contour’s rapidly expanding patent portfolio.
“Today’s latest patent protects one of the most prized and strategic technologies in our fast-growing IP portfolio,” said Joe Fisher, CEO of Contour Energy Systems. “Our Fluorinetic manufacturing processes and new carbon nanomaterials are game-changing technologies which will be instrumental in developing new batteries with dramatically improved power and energy density, longevity, durability and service life. This newly patented technology is central to Contour’s next-generation batteries that are targeting automotive, consumer, industrial, medical, military and transportation markets.”
As the commercialization arm for this technology, initially developed at California Institute of Technology and CNRS, the French National Center for Scientific Research, Contour Energy Systems maintains an exclusive worldwide licensing arrangement with both institutions covering advanced battery and electrochemical systems technology.
The Fluorinetic manufacturing process is a unique characteristic of Contour Energy’s carbon fluoride batteries. “This proprietary process for introducing fluorine into multi-layered carbon nanomaterials provides a fundamentally different molecular structure than found for traditional carbon fluoride materials,” explains Dr. Simon Jones, director of research and development at Contour Energy Systems. “This new structure, coupled with the use of novel multi-layered carbon nanomaterials, affords significant advantages over existing battery types, including substantial increases in energy and power densities, reliable operation under extreme conditions, an extended shelf life and avoidance of overheating, any of which can be optimized for specific applications.”
Contour combines the advantages offered by its newly patented technology with carbon fluoride chemistry that can be customized during key steps in the manufacturing process by altering the cathode’s physical structure at the atomic level. This Tunable Cathode™ also plays a pivotal role in providing customers with batteries featuring an optimal combination of higher energy and/or power densities, and lower self-discharge rates. As a result, Contour has a significant competitive advantage by adjusting the performance characteristics of its batteries to the unique requirements of individual applications rather than forcing applications to adhere to the performance properties of the battery. This breakthrough is key to OEMs seeking portable power solutions optimized for specific applications with varying power and energy density, longevity, temperature range and shelf life requirements.
Source: http://www.contourenergy.com/