can batterys improve?

raggie33

*the raggedier*
Joined
Aug 11, 2003
Messages
13,559
do you think they can improve battery technolgy?also is there anythiong that you know of thats in the works in the battery world
 

highlandsun

Enlightened
Joined
Aug 11, 2002
Messages
607
Location
Los Angeles, CA
The question was pretty open. Can *what* battery technology improve? Lead-Acid has been around for over a hundred years, and still in the past few years the spiral-core variant has been developed that is an obvious reliability improvement over regular wet cells.

Can alkalines be improved? Probably; Eveready, Duracell, and Energizer keep tinkering with their formulations to get longer life = more mAh per kg.

Can we find something better than alkalines to power flashlights? Yes of course - NiMH and LiIon for example. All of these are improvements over "garden variety" batteries, when judged by particular measures. But if you don't specify what measures you're interested in, and what technologies you're comparing against, the question is meaningless. And thus the vacuous answer.
 

raggie33

*the raggedier*
Joined
Aug 11, 2003
Messages
13,559
[ QUOTE ]
highlandsun said:
The question was pretty open. Can *what* battery technology improve? Lead-Acid has been around for over a hundred years, and still in the past few years the spiral-core variant has been developed that is an obvious reliability improvement over regular wet cells.

Can alkalines be improved? Probably; Eveready, Duracell, and Energizer keep tinkering with their formulations to get longer life = more mAh per kg.

Can we find something better than alkalines to power flashlights? Yes of course - NiMH and LiIon for example. All of these are improvements over "garden variety" batteries, when judged by particular measures. But if you don't specify what measures you're interested in, and what technologies you're comparing against, the question is meaningless. And thus the vacuous answer.


[/ QUOTE ] what i mean is there going to be a better battery but ty fot ya answer
 

mattheww50

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 24, 2003
Messages
1,048
Location
SW Pennsylvania
We can make much better batteries. The biggest issue is power density. How much energy can you provider per pound of weight. The answer is we can provide a whole lot more then we are getting today. The problem is the hazards (both legal, and practical) in doing so.

We know how, the problems revolve around safety and product liability. At one time Ford was looking a Sodium Sulfur battery to power an electric car. It had enormous power density and would have worked far better then Lead Acid, or NiMh.

It also needed to operate at about 500 degrees, and to suggest that components were hazardous in an accident is perhaps the understatement of the year.
 

highlandsun

Enlightened
Joined
Aug 11, 2002
Messages
607
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Those sodium batteries are in production today. Read all about them here: http://www.betard.co.uk/

But no matter what these guys claim they're still not as good as Lithium. Lithium Polymer batteries only need to be heated to 140 degrees or so, much easier to manage and better power density.

Also, NiMH has continued to improve, and will continue.

Meanwhile, today's consumer Li-Ion batteries only have cycle lives of 500-1000 cycles; SAFT has just developed a high power Li-Ion that handles 300,000 cycles. Read about it here: http://www.uscar.org/Media/2002issue3/p1_liionbattery.htm
 
Top