Why Our Batteries Are Better
My Experience with Shoddy Battery Factories
About 10 years ago I
read an article written by a man from the USA who was in China on a business
trip that was unrelated to batteries. He
had been contemplating buying a lithium battery pack and had been corresponding
to several candidates that proposed to sell him the batteries that he
needed. Since he had some spare time he
decided to visit some of these factories who had sent him glossy descriptions
of their abilities to supply him their batteries. What he discovered on these visits was
shocking. He said that some companies
were manufacturing batteries in small facilities no bigger than garages while
squatting on the floor with only basic tools.
There was no quality control testing.
Fortunately most of the industry has made great progress since those
early days.
When I went into the
lithium battery business in 2008, and in spite of this advance warning, I felt
that I could determine who was a legitimate supplier and who were fraudulent or
made poor quality cells. It turned out
that even with my best efforts to evaluate the Chinese lithium battery
suppliers I still had some experiences that cost our company a loss in
reputation and a large amount of money.
Finally I decided that the only way I could really evaluate some of the
companies that made us some good offers was to go to China and do plant surveys. It was an eye opening experience. As a result I now routinely go to China to
try to stay abreast of the latest technology and most advanced manufacturing
techniques. I try to visit up to 5
factories on each trip. These China trips have paid off because we now
know about many companies that might have caused us pain. There are literally hundreds of companies who
make lithium batteries. Eventually the
market cannot support them all and there will be a winnowing out of their ranks
and only the efficient will succeed. As
they struggle and in their desperate effort to survive they are tempted to
lower the purity of the chemicals in their cells and take other shortcuts in an
effort to lower prices and stay competitive.
Great New Battery Factory Discovered – Bright Star
I am happy to report
that I feel we have finally reached my goal of representing the Bright Star Company. The reason I like the Bright Star batteries
are myriad. Here is what you should
know.
Bright Star has only been up and running for
three years. This results in a factory
which has modern equipment and is totally automated. There is a stage in the manufacturing of
lithium batteries where almost all of the older manufacturers use a process
called a ‘Glove Box’. This is where a
number of employees in a glass enclosed clean room put their hands through
sealed holes in the glass and use rubber gloves to assemble the final stages of
the battery before it is sealed up.
Bright Star has eliminated that manual process with fully automated
equipment. Please click
here for pictures and you will get a good idea about the quality
of their cells. It is important that you
know that these pictures were taken during a normal production day and that the
factory was not all cleaned up for our visit.
