Services and Capabilities

Polaris can perform graphite milling, particle spheroidization, pitch coat, graphitization, and sieving in house, and we can offer purification via a 3rd party provider. These processes are typically utilized for the graphite industry but can be applied to other materials as required.

We frequently assess binders, electrolytes, conductive aides, separators, and other battery components, and can provide critical material testing data to guide project development or aid in fundraising efforts. Polaris offers characterization reports for raw materials both before and after processing operations that can include particle size, purity, surface area, SEM analysis and more.

Rheology and formulation development incorporating new materials and components is a cornerstone of our expertise. Our mix and coat specialists have extensive experience developing mix recipes and troubleshooting common coating problems. We are experienced in both traditional Li-ion electrodes and non-lithium-ion chemistries like Zinc Manganese and Sodium Ion.

Polaris can offer baseline reference Li-ion electrodes including NCM, LFP, NCA, and Graphite, in both power and energy loadings. Additionally, we can coat customized or proprietary electrode material to client specification.

Additionally, we utilize a variety of electrode process control parameters including precision loading, rheology, Hegman gauge, adhesion pull test, bend radius test, and loading mapping.

Electrochemical testing starts with battery cell format selection, design, and fabrication. Formats include half cells, full coin cells, and single or multilayer pouch cells. Pouch cells are available in three standard Polaris sizes, and custom sizes are available as defined by the customer.

Basic testing includes first cycle loss, impedance, first charge capacity, first discharge capacity, cycle life, discharge and charge rate testing. Additional or specialized testing regimes can be performed based on client requirements.

Our team is experienced in a variety of common cell performance and fabrication issues seen across the industry. We can assist in preventative cell design to avoid common errors, as well as root cause analysis of failures or problems in existing cell designs. Our Battery scientists regularly perform cell disassembly procedures (known as cell autopsy) on prototype cells to gauge how cycling has impacted the internal components and structure, or to learn about recurring problems in performance.

Polaris can design customized fixtures, workflows, and process solutions for a wide variety of development tasks. Past process development projects have included:

• Swelling analysis test fixtures for graphite and silicon to allow real time Z dimension measurement during cycling
• Displacement testing rig for VED calculations
• Customized cell test fixtures for high temperature testing
• Inert atmosphere cell assembly processes for pouch cell lithium metal cells
• Wound and stacked cell assembly methods for 150mAh to 2 Ah pouch cells