Toshiba will invest $ 273 million to build lithium-ion battery factory
According to foreign reports, Toshiba said that they thought the demand of lithium-ion battery used in electric vehicles will increase, therefore it is planned to invest 25 billion yen ( about 273 million U.S. dollars ) to build a new Lithium-ion battery factory in the north of Japan on October 28 .
This new factory will be located at Niigata Prefecture in Kashiwazaki City. The initial capacity is of 500,000 batteries per month .It is expected that the plant will be put into operation in spring of 2011,which meams Toshiba production capacity can be increased by 3 times.
Another factory of Toshiba in central part of Japan could monthly produces 150,000 rechargeable batteries SCiB (Super Charge ion Battery / Super rechargeable lithium batteries).
Spokesman of Toshiba Ken Shinjo said: "We hope that this new plant capacity can be increased to hundreds of millions a few years later, since the demand of electric cars will start to grow from 2011."
Toshiba raised the range of first half fiscal year and first two-quarter yesterday.It is expected that there will be profit rather than loss , but still maintain the full-year outlook below market expectations.
Adapter
Adapter is a small portable electronic device and power supply conversion equipment for electronic appliances. It is generally compased of outer casing, power transformer and rectifier circuit.According to the standard of output type, it could be classified into AC Output and DC Output;According to connection type,it could be classed into wall-plug-in and desktop. It is widely used in picture-matching on the phone machine, games, language repeater, music players, laptop, and cellular phones .
Most ac adapter of laptop can automatically detect the 100 ~ 240V AC (50/60Hz). Most of laptop are equipped with external power supply,which connects with host computer with a line so as to reduce the size and weight,while only a very small number of laptops are designed their the power supply inside of host laptop.
There is respectively a mark in the adapter,which indicates voltage of input and output, electrical current and power limits.We should pay attention to the particular input voltage range, which is the so-called " adapter for travelling" . This feaTure would be very helpful where the electricity voltage is only 100V .Some fake laptops are only limited sold in original country without this special design, or even with input voltage of 100V, so they would be burn out in some country such as China which has a normal electricity voltage of 220V.
EV battery recycling project
Nissan and Sumitomo announced that both of them will begin to jointly research recycling of EV battery and decided to take it as a business to conduct.
Nissan Motor Co. is considering EV lithium-ion rechargeable batteries for the second half of 2010 rental listings. There is a difficuly that capacity of lithium-ion rechargeable battery reduces,due to environmental issues. But the company believes, " It is expected to have 70 - 80% of the remaining capacity even if the lithium-ion rechargeable battery in EV is used for 5 to 10 years."
The newly developed EV batteries have higher remaining capacity, so it will be helpful to apply EV batteries on other industries, such as energy storage of homes and businesses. Making EV battery recycling does not reduce the burden of EV users to reduce the EV battery costs,but also increase the possibility to conduct business in lithium-ion rechargeable batteries The two companies plan to jointly venture for achieving operational recycling of the battery before the second half of 2010 ,if it is likely to deveolp the battery -reusing business.
Nissan believes because the demand for rechargeable batteries in Japan is at least equivalent of anaual 50000 EV before 2020, the expectations of the battery re-use will be increasingly high.Therefore, they consider achieving low-cost EV oriented with Sumitomo Corporation,at the same time, actively respond to the expanding needs of re-use rechargeable batteries to better advance the battery business .
safe use of lithium-ion battery in case of explosion
In recent years, the frequency of lithium-ion electronic products explosion aroused a lot of consumer's panic. Some people are too scared to charge for their own mobile phones,and MP3; others even cast their laptop batteries aside because of fear . However, according to survey results, the majority of lithium battery explosions are caused by the ignorance of safety tips, such as unauthorized modification, use of non-matching charger, place the battery in extreme environments ...and so on.
There is need to point out that having succeeded commercialization,the lithium battery has a mature technology which has been studied for 30 years. Its safety is guaranteed. Regular brands of lithium batteries will be tested for numerous procedure before they are out of factory.What is more, after they are sold,there is information feedback mechanism so as to recall the unqualified products in time.
United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) gives the recommendations of safe using lithium batteries as following:
1. Use original charger: Li-ion battery charging time is the high period of bombing. The original battery charger is much safer than compatible battery charger.
2. Use reliable battery: try to buy original batteries instead of buying "second-hand goods" or "parallel imports" that might be reparied in order to save money.The reliability of those batteries is worse than that of original battery.
3. Do not place the battery in extreme environments: high temperature and collisions, etc. are all main causes of battery explosion.therefore, put the battery in a stable environment as much as possible,away from the high-temperature.
4. Do not make modification.Laptop battery is sophisticated. Manufacturers have strictly textual research on its security.After modification, the battery may be placed in unsuitable environment which is not taken into account. It increased security risks.
The 3rd production line of vehicle batteries has been completed
Recently, Hitachi Vehicle Energy announced that the company's automotive lithium-ion rechargeable battery, "the first three-generation production line" have been completed and will begin production in 2010. The production line can produce 300,000 batteries units per month. Together with the output of existing production lines, monthly supply capacity could reach 34 million units. The 3rd generation battery power density is of 3000W/kg, which is about as much as 115% of the 2nd generation products, reaching the highest level of global lithium-ion rechargeable batteries production .
The Shin-Kobe Electric of Hitachi group began to produce first generation lithium-ion rechargeable batteries for hybrid vehicles and electric cars in 2000. Hitachi Group also set up Hitachi Vehicle Energy which specially develops and produces automotive lithium-ion rechargeable batteries in 2004, and started the 2nd generation production line. This time, together with the existing production capacity,the third generation after the completion of mass production lines, according to hybrid computing, the annual supply capacity could reach 100,000 or more. Faced with the growing demand for eco-car, it could meet the battery needs of global automotive manufacturers.
Hitachi Vehicle Energy plans to display 3rd generation lithium-ion rechargeable batteries of new production line at the Hitachi Group zone at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show (October 24, 2009 ~ November 4 ).