Category Archives: Technology

Agreement supports NASAs Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator technology, which is developing ultra-lightweight heat shields for maximizing payload delivery to planetary surfaces.

SANTA MONICA, Calif., September 20, 2022--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Outpost Technologies Corporation ("Outpost"), the first space company to develop a platform for returning satellites to Earth, today announced that it has signed a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA Langley Research Center for the use and development of their flight-tested Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) to provide industry-leading payload Earth return capabilities from orbit.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220920005504/en/

Credit: NASA

The SAA enables Outpost to collaborate with NASA on developing HIAD technology for safely returning Outpost satellites to Earth. NASA first developed their revolutionary HIAD to provide more options for planetary missions by allowing spacecraft to carry larger, heavier payloads and survive the harsh conditions of atmospheric re-entry. Outpost will expand the scope of HIADs capability for enterprise-class satellites to return to Earth. Through this partnership, Outpost will act as a commercialization partner of the HIAD technology to enable broad industry adoption.

"Earth return of satellites offers a new ability to lower mission cost by introducing reusability to the satellite cost equation," says Outpost Founder and CEO Jason Dunn. "Conventional ablative heat shield tiles work fine on very large space vehicles, but at the satellite-scale they take up so much of the mass that very little room is left for payload. The fabric-based inflatable HIAD is a game changer because it magnifies our payload margin well beyond anything others are doing."

"Developing HIAD technology could enable entirely new mission concepts to become possible," added Neil Cheatwood, the Senior Technologist for Planetary Entry, Descent, and Landing at NASA Langley. "Leveraging the deep expertise of the HIAD team can help industry develop the technology needed to safely re-enter the atmosphere and navigate to the landing site."

Story continues

About Outpost

Outpost, the sustainable space company, is spearheading a new way of space development thats reusable, not disposable. With its very first product, Outpost is building reusable satellites that deliver customer payloads to space and back to Earth. By flying payloads with Outpost, users can put their product into space, iterate, and learn how they performed in space. Outpost facilitates iteration in space at a quicker pace than anything else available. The future of space (and Earth) requires a focus on low-cost reusability to create a sustainable industry. At Outpost, we are proud to be leading the charge to develop products with sustainability as the core design. Learn more at http://www.outpost.space

Join us on Social Media: @outpostspace

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220920005504/en/

Contacts

Diane Murphy (Diane@aquariusgroup.net) T. +1.310.658.8756.

Originally posted here:

Outpost Signs Agreement with NASA to Utilize Revolutionary Heat Shield Technology That Will Enable the Company's Unique Platform to Return Satellites...

While the life sciences industry has been historically cautious to adopt technology trends, the COVID-19 pandemic forced an immediate transformation and modernization of clinical trial processes. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the operational disruption of clinical trial sites and hospitals, sponsors realized the need for more agile tools to help capture patient data in a remote capacity. Regulators across the globe released guidance for the continuation of clinical trials amidst these new hurdles.

In March of 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expressed strong support for electronic clinical outcome assessments (eCOAs) and encouraged sponsors to provide devices to patients lacking access. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) took an even more direct stance, suggesting that patients use their own technology devices to record this information, ushering in adoption of the bring your own device (BYOD) model. Today, BYOD has become an essential cornerstone of modern clinical trials.

Eager to resume clinical trials while also complying with COVID-19 safety measures, the life sciences industry accelerated their adoption of new methods for collecting patient data, with BYOD at the forefront of that effort. Using personal technology such as mobile phones, tablets and wearables in a clinical setting presents unique opportunities for improving patient engagement, while also cutting costs.

These digital assessments simplify the tracking of patient progress outside the confines of the site environment, allowing sponsors to collect data and support the safety and efficacy of a treatment and its impact on patients quality of life. Enabling patients to use their own devices also eliminates the time and cost of commissioning devices for every patient, which can drastically reduce a trial budget while accelerating study start-up.

Beyond the budgetary benefits, the BYOD option has also been proven to increase compliance. Giving patients the option to complete tasks on a device they are familiar with lessens patient burden and ultimately yields better engagement.

Electronic patient reported outcomes make it easy for patients to input their health data, and to use alerts, reminders and other embedded tools to weave the trial into their daily lives. This allows sponsors to keep patients engaged while incorporating their personal feedback into the research environment.

The adoption of virtual models encourages sponsors to think about how patients interact with trials, how much time they really need to spend at on-site appointments, and what technology and services can be leveraged to enhance the experience while capturing a consistent stream of quality data. BYOD benefits patients by giving them the option to download study apps directly to their devices without the hassle of lugging around an extra piece of technology just to record their health data. A study found that 94% of participants would definitely or probably be willing to download an app onto their own mobile device for a forthcoming clinical trial. Through this capability, patients are able to use the device they are familiar with to access their own health data, alerts and calendar data. As a result, BYOD effectively eliminates barriers to participation while simultaneously enhancing the overall engagement experience of each individual patient.

While the benefits of BYOD are undeniable, sponsors still have an obligation to address concerns surrounding data security, app performance and regulatory compliance. This includes adhering to the EUs General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for Minimal data collection where required. Working with technology partners who understand the demands of the clinical regulatory environment is invaluable in ensuring eCOAs and other digital tools follow all regulations and can prove compliance. Taking the time to strategically plan and implement new technologies will mitigate these concerns and make for a hassle-free BYOD trial experience.

Across organizational functions, we are keenly aware today that the pandemic has been instrumental in inciting digital transformation. In the area of clinical research, it has become undeniable that, through BYOD, everyone can win in the decentralized trial environment. BYOD provides a safe, accessible, convenient and cost-effective way to collect endpoint data for regulatory submissions. Patients enjoy the ease and comfort of using their own devices, sponsors achieve time and cost savings, and regulators experience increased compliance. As remote capabilities take their place as the new standard across all industries, BYOD will continue to gain momentum and facilitate a more streamlined and high-quality clinical trial experience for patients and sponsors alike.

Excerpt from:

BYOD: The Future of Clinical Trials - Technology Networks

Sep 05, 2022

St. Bonaventure University has been awarded a $10,000 Anna C. Manley Charitable Trust grant to support the creation of a Technology and Research Collaboration Center on campus.

The university received news of the grant from Ron Sutton, senior vice president at Key Bank. Sutton oversees the F.T. and Anna C. Manley Trust, which awarded the $10,000 grant.

The proposal was authored by Dr. Michael Hoffman, associate provost and chief information officer; Brian Kellogg, chair of SBUs cybersecurity department; and Dr. Megan Walsh, acting dean of the School of Arts & Sciences when the grant proposal was submitted.

The center will be equipped with state-of-the-art computer technology for student research, furniture designed to create a collaborative academic workspace, and hands-on equipment for collaborative work amongst students and with faculty, Hoffman said.

I want to thank the Manley Trust and Ron Sutton for their continued support of St. Bonaventure, Hoffman said. The proposal to renovate an existing Walsh Science Center classroom will help to provide our computer science and cybersecurity programs with a space that matches the ambitions of our students and their research ideas.

Faculty, staff, and students will contribute to the final design of the room, which will be called the Manley Technology Research and Collaboration Center. The center is expected to be completed by the spring semester and will include:

The new center will also benefit the community, Walsh said.

The university has hosted programming contests for local high school students and has sponsored Girls Day, an event for students in grades 6-8 that features a series of workshops presented by women working in tech fields.

The center will not only fill a critical need in our faculty-student learning environment, but also benefit the middle and high school students in our community as they take their first steps toward careers in technology, Walsh said.

Established in 1989, the Manley Trust provides grants to charitable causes, organizations and educational institutions in Cattaraugus and Allegany counties.

St. Bonaventure has received a number of Manley grants over the last few years, including ones for a Psychology Collaboration/Research Center, School of Education Collaboration Center, video conferencing center, SBUs Veterans Center, equipment for the universitys Health and Human Performance Lab, a new technology for the digital media center in the library, and a physical space at Friedsam Library for its Faculty Resource Center.

______________

About the University: The nations first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. St. Bonaventure was named the #5 regional university value in the North in U.S. News and World Reports 2022 college rankings edition.

Originally posted here:

St. Bonaventure receives Manley Grant to create Technology and Research Collaboration Center - St. Bonaventure

When David Morgan wrote to NHS Digital Health during the pandemic to offer his companys telehealth solutions, he says he was politely shown the door.

According to the CEO of Black Space Technology, a Birmingham-based company building health software durable enough for the battlefield, the government should have embraced more technology to tackle Covid-19.

In my mind, this was an absolute scandal that could have been predicted. Hundreds and thousands of patients could have been looked after much better by the use of technology, Morgan tells UKTN.

I think the government failed dismally in its use of technology when they knew that there were companies out there that had mature robust technology.

Morgan founded Black Space Technology in 2018 after selling his previous company, Safe Patient Systems, for an undisclosed sum.

He took his best developers with him and created a system for managing mass casualties, which led to a military contract.

Today, Black Space Technology has three core products: a software-based solution that monitors vital signs on an Android tablet, wearable health monitoring sensors and the aforementioned mass casualty system.

Its hardware-agnostic software is currently trialled by the Singapore military, while Blach Space also counts the French police and Spanish Air Force among customers.

It is also collaborating with the Great North Air Ambulance and Gravity Industries on its Jet Suit Paramedic project, providing vital sign monitoring equipment that crucially weighs approximately 500 grams.

The purpose of Black Space Technology, says Morgan, is to exploit the Android platform in the military medical space.

The venture is not Morgans first in the world of medical technology. Back in the 1990s, Morgan was part of a research group at the University of Warwick that looked into the use of artificial neural networks to diagnose bacterial infections using an infection-smelling sensor.

Black Space Technology is bootstrapped by David as he didnt wish to be held to ransom by the shareholders or investors and sees it as a more organic way of growing your company.

He adds: I think the best piece of advice I was ever given was by a VC many years ago. He said by all means prove your technology works in the NHS, but dont think about it as a customer. And certainly dont base your financial projections on the NHS.

Black Space Technology turned its attention to telehealth for care at home after a patient visiting Morgans clinic became fed up with paying parking fees for an appointment that lasted around three minutes and taking a day off sick.

Morgans patient suggested sending a photo of his wound instead. This suggestion then became reality and since then the companys telehealth solution has monitored approximately 10,000 patients, reducing emergency admissions by half.

The Birmingham-based Black Space Technology team is made of 1o people. According to its website, the Blackspace team has been at the forefront of deploying mobile technology to improve patient care at scale in the NHS since 2005.

For now, one of its key priorities is the military telehealth space.We hope to have it being used by the UK military in the next few months, Morgan says.

Next on the list for Black Space is to create a stand-alone ultrasound device and seek out ties with NATO and partners in the Middle and Far East.

The interesting thing about the military is it does take a long time for them to make decisions, Morgan says. But theyre a delight to work with, theyre very keen on technology.

Read more from the original source:

Black Space Technology CEO: 'Prove tech works at the NHS, but don't think of it as a customer' - UKTN (UK Technology News

Government agency recommends that other federal agencies follow best practices for automation, notice, and use of private contractors.

Twice each year, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS)an independent federal agencyissues recommendations for improvements to administrative and regulatory processes. This past June, ACUS published three new recommendations at its 77th plenary session.

These new recommendations address how agencies should use automated technology to interact with the public, provide effective notice of regulatory changes to the public, and manage private contractors in the rulemaking process.

The Regulatory Review invited ACUS staff and outside experts involved in developing these recommendations to share insights on the issues raised by these recommendations and their importance for improving administrative government. The ACUS recommendations highlighted in this series aim to guide agencies using automated tools that dispense information and offer guidance, improve public notice of regulatory changes, and distinguish appropriate roles for private contractors in the rulemaking process.

This series includes contributions from: Joshua D. Blank, University of California Irvine School of Law; E. Donald Elliott, Antonin Scalia Law School; Joshua Galperin, Pace Law School; Kazia Nowacki, ACUS; and Leigh Osofsky, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law.

September 6, 2022 | Joshua D. Blank, University of California Irvine School of Law, and Leigh Osofsky, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law

Agencies should take care when using chatbots, virtual assistants, and preset menus to share legal information.

September 7, 2022 | E. Donald Elliott, Antonin Scalia Law School, and Joshua Galperin, Pace Law School

Federal agencies can face legal risk if they only provide constructive notice of regulatory changes through publication and FOIA availability.

September 8, 2022 | Kazia Nowacki, ACUS

Guidance from ACUS seeks to help agencies craft policies guiding their use of contractors in the rulemaking process.

Original post:

Using Technology and Contractors in the Administrative State - The Regulatory Review

The key to the universal vaccine is the mosaic nanoparticle with so many different viral fragments clustered in close proximity on its surface. The immune systems B cells, which generate specific antibodies, are likely to find and bind to at least some of these conserved pieces of the virus, which remain unchanged on new variants. Thus, the B cells will make antibodies effective against even previously unseen variants.

To make their mosaic nanoparticle, Cohen, Bjorkman, and their collaborators chose proteins from the surfaces of 12 coronaviruses identified by other research groups and detailed in the scientific literature. These included the viruses that caused the first SARS outbreak and the one that causes covid-19, but also non-human viruses found in bats in China, Bulgaria, and Kenya. For good measure, they also threw in a coronavirus found in a scaly anteater known as a pangolin. All the strains had already been genetically sequenced by other groups and share 68 to 95% of the same genomic material. Thus, Cohen and Bjorkman could be relatively sure that at least some portions of each distinct spike protein they chose to place on the exterior of their nanoparticle would be shared by some of the other viruses.

The key to the universal vaccine is the mosaic nanoparticle with so many different viral fragments clustered in close proximity on its surface.

Then they made three vaccines. One, for comparison purposes, had all 60 slots occupied by particles taken from a single strain of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19. The other two were mosaics, each one displaying a mix of protein fragments taken from eight of the 12 bat, human, and pangolin coronavirus strains. The remaining four strains were left off the vaccine so the researchers could test whether it would protect against them anyway.

In mouse studies, all three vaccines bound equally well to the covid-19 virus. But when Cohen sat down to look at his results, he was shocked at how much more powerfully the mosaic nanoparticles performed when exposed to different strains of coronavirus not represented on the spikes they had been exposed to.

The vaccine was triggering the production of armies of antibodies to attack the parts of the proteins that changed least among the different strains of coronavirusthe parts, in other words, that are conserved.

In recent months, Bjorkman, Cohen, and their collaborators have been testing out the vaccine in monkeys as well as rodents. So far, it seems to be working. Some of the experiments proceeded slowly because they had to be done by overseas collaborators in special high-security biosafety labs designed to ensure that highly contagious viruses do not escape. But when the results finally appeared in Science, the paper received widespread attention.

COURTESY OF CALTECH

Other promising efforts are moving in parallel. At the University of Washingtons Institute of Protein Design, biochemist Neil King has custom-designed hundreds of new types of nanoparticles, sculpting them atom by atom, he says, in such a way that the atoms self-assemble, attracted to the correct positions by other pieces engineered to carry complimentary geometric and chemical charges. In 2019, King's collaborator Barney Graham at NIH was the first to successfully demonstrate that mosaic nanoparticles could be effective against different flu strains. King, Graham, and collaborators formed a company to modify and develop the technique, and they have a nanoparticle influenza vaccine in phase 1 clinical trials. They are now deploying the new technology against a variety of different viruses, including SARS-CoV-2.

Despite the recent promising developments, Bjorkman warns that her vaccine likely wont protect us from all coronaviruses. There are four families of coronaviruses, each a little different from the next, and some target entirely different receptors in human cells. Thus, there are fewer sites conserved across coronavirus families. The vaccine from her lab focuses on a universal vaccine for the sarbecovirus, the subfamily that contains SARS coronaviruses and SARS-coV-2.

See the original post here:

This nanoparticle could be the key to a universal covid vaccine - MIT Technology Review

Archer Materials (ASX: AXE) has teamed-up with GlobalFoundries to work towards industry fabrication of its 12CQ quantum chip (12CQ chip) technology.

Described as a world-leading semiconductor foundry GlobalFoundries is providing Archer with expertise, equipment, and manufacturing processes to further develop its 12CQ chip qubit technology.

Commenting on the agreement with GlobalFoundries, Archer chief executive officer Dr Mohammad Choucair said the company was now positioned to leverage GlobalFoundries capabilities to accelerate development of this technology.

Archers goal is to ensure its qubit materials are suitable for industrial-scale semiconductor nanofabrication, with the materials to then be incorporated in mobile-compatible devices.

To boost the fabrication its 12CQ chip devices and components, Archer recognised it needed to collaborate with industrial-scale manufacturers in the global semiconductor supply chain.

Under todays announced agreement, Archer has access to GlobalFoundries facilities and manufacturing processes to help identify pathways for high-volume manufacturing of the 12CQ chip devices and components.

Dr Choucair noted that current quantum computing qubit components are reliant on custom fabrication. This compares to traditional computing circuits that are manufactured in established industrial semiconductor facilities.

He added integrating qubit materials with industrial-scale foundries is a significant challenge in developing quantum processors.

Archer is the only ASX-listed entity, and one of few worldwide, that is developing qubit processor technology.

The agreement with GlobalFoundries follows Archers news last week that it had achieved a long-term goal of fabricating biochip device components less than 10 nanometres (nm) in size.

Archer began nanofabrication processes in April 2021 with the aim of developing the sub-10nm biochip features.

The company has now fabricated sub-10nm features reproducibly and reliably through the development of several advanced lithographic processes on a silicon wafer in a clean-room environment.

Achieving sub-10 nanometre fabrication of electronic device components is an excellent outcome on our path to developing Archers biochip technology, and one that demonstrates the world-class capabilities of our pioneering team, Dr Choucair said.

Dr Choucair says the companys semiconductor devices push the boundaries of modern technology.

Continued here:

Archer Materials and GlobalFoundries work towards industry fabrication of 12CQ chip technology - Small Caps

Over the summer, University President Peter Salovey created multiple new leadership roles, including a new position on his cabinet vice president for information technology supporting Yales commitment to equipping members of our community with the necessary digital resources to teach, learn, and pursue new knowledge and solutions for pressing global challenge.

Sarah Cook 12:47 am, Sep 06, 2022

Staff Reporter

Yale News

University President Peter Salovey recently announced the appointment of John Barden to a new role on the University cabinet, vice president for information technology, in addition to his previous role of chief information officer.

This new university officer level role elevates Barden to now be a member of the University cabinet, Saloveys circle of advisers. While it does not change Bardens focus, as he already served to oversee IT systems, he now reports to Jack Callahan, senior vice president for operations, and will be involved in university-wide discussions.

An organization with 320 years of history doesnt make new officer-level positions very often, Barden told the News. I believe senior leaders recognized it was time to acknowledge our dependency and our necessity around having good solid digital infrastructure, [and] had reached the point where elevating the role seemed an appropriate decision.

This new role points to the continuing goals of the University to strengthen its digital infrastructure in the midst of a large network update and continued efforts to optimize hybrid and virtual options for University employees.

Barden said the role represents a reflection of progress that will increase visibility and collaboration throughout the University.

The enhanced organizational structure also will place the CIO position on equal footing with other roles that report directly to the senior vice president for operations, including the vice presidents for facilities, finance and human resources, as well as with most of our peer schools, Salovey and Callahan wrote in a joint announcement.

In the June 24 message to the Yale community, Salovey and Callahan wrote that Yale has a longstanding responsibility to create and share knowledge that improves the world for this and future generations, and noted that information technology is essential to this mission. They also added that the pandemic has driven this recent push for modernization.

Barden agreed that even before the pandemic highlighted the Universitys dependency on technology, the modernization that his team is working on was long desired.

When I started here five years ago, I think its fair to say that people were not super happy with how Information Technology was doing, relative to the complexity and the needs of the institution, Barden told the News.

Callahan said there is an infrastructure component to IT that the University was mediocre at before Barden came to Yale, and that investments in IT in the past have not been well coordinated.

Given the size of the University, Callahan emphasized the importance of Information Technology, as it is used for facilitating and supporting research, human resources systems on the administrative side and clinical practices.

Barden told the News that his teams work is centered around supporting the Universitys mission in these different facets related to Information Technology.

Weve tried to align all of our work in Information Technology through the lens of the four missions of the institution, Barden said. So we really talked about academic priorities, research priorities, clinical priorities and cultural heritage and museums priorities. And by turning it that way, weve started talking less about technology and more about institutional goals and positioning Information Technology as an enabler for those objectives.

In Bardens time at Yale, he has helped develop the Program Management and Operations Excellence Team, and he helped develop One IT at Yale, which makes it easier for students and faculty to find resources online.

Barden has also been involved with the ongoing project that began in 2020 to modernize the campus network, which involves over 10,000 pieces of equipment that need replacing. The network update is almost finished in the Yale School of Medicine and is set to finish for the rest of the University in approximately three years, according to Barden.

Today, Barden told the News he is focused on developing multiple modalities of teaching, as well as supporting the increasingly-computational research taking place at Yale. Many of these issues are school-specific, such as in the Yale School of Nursing and the Yale School of Management, where some classes may be offered online in the future.

In addition to developing virtual learning options, Barden said that Yale is working with a few of its vendors on prototyping hybrid options that could be used for University employees.

Sarah Cook covers President Salovey's Cabinet and works on the social media team. Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, she is a first year in Grace Hopper majoring in Neuroscience.

Read the original here:

Yale creates inaugural Cabinet role in information technology - Yale Daily News

Pune-based Vidcare Technologies, which has developed a credit-card-sized chip to revolutionise how blood testing is being performed, has acquired pre-seed funding of $300K in the last week of August. Called Mu-sure, the technology will first be deployed in the testing of hypothyroidism in people, especially women during pregnancy.

We had realised that there was almost no way to carry out blood tests outside of a centralised lab and get results easily and intuitively at home. One of the outcomes was that since a lot of people, especially in rural India, were unwilling to travel to a lab or or nearby health centres for tests, a lot of medical conditions and illnesses were not diagnosed, says Rohan Aggarwal, who founded Vidcare in 2017 with Karan Aggarwal and Saurabh Kumar Srivastava.

Mu-sure is designed as an equipment-free blood diagnostic platform. The entire test fits in a disposable, credit card-sized self-contained chip without compromising test accuracy. All you need is the Mu-sure chip. Add your sample, wait 20 minutes, and read the results as you do on a thermometer. With the help of a mobile phone, you can digitise the results to share with your doctor, adds Aggarwal. The decision to roll out Mu-sure to test for hypothyroidism was based on conversations with patients, physicians and other stakeholders.

Hypothyroidism is one of the main causes of birth complications as well as development disorders in children globally. According to an article in The Lancet (2014), 42 million people in India suffer from thyroid disorders, with hypothyroidism being the most common, affecting one in 10 adults in the country. Mu-sure ensures that even an untrained person can easily use the test, says Aggarwal.

The money raised through the recent funding will be used to take the product to the market and make it available to various public health institutions, companies that work in public health, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes. We also intend to use the same technology to develop further applications with the focus being on national diseases. The aim is to ensure preventive care as patients can carry out tests at their own convenience, adds Aggarwal.

Link:

Pune Inc: With an innovative blood testing technology, firm gets $300K in a pre-seed funding - The Indian Express

The good news is that by using bigger cells and a new process to dry-coat electrodes, Tesla could halve the cost of a Model Y battery, saving more than 8% of the car's U.S. starting price, battery experts with ties to the company said.

The bad news is that it's only halfway there, according to 12 experts close to Tesla or familiar with its new technology.

That's because the dry-coating technique used to produce the bigger cells in Tesla's 4680 battery is so new and unproven, the company is having trouble scaling up manufacturing to the point where the big cost savings kick in, the experts told Reuters.

"They just aren't ready for mass production," said one of the experts close to Tesla.

Still, the gains Tesla has already made in cutting battery production costs in the past two years could help boost profits and extend its lead over most electric vehicle (EV) rivals.

Elon Musk's promised improvements in battery cost and performance are seen by investors as critical to Tesla's quest to usher in an era where it can sell a $25,000 EV for a profit - and stand a better chance of hitting its 2030 targets.

Battery systems are the most expensive single element in most EVs, so making lower-cost, high-performance packs is key to producing affordable electric cars that can go toe to toe with combustion-engine rivals on sticker prices.

Tesla is one of only a handful of major automakers that produce their own EV batteries and by manufacturing Model Y cells at U.S. plants, the SUV will remain eligible for U.S. tax credits when many rival EVs may no longer qualify.

Among the 12 battery experts Reuters spoke with, nine have close ties to Tesla and three of the nine have examined Tesla's new and old battery technology inside and out through teardowns.

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

'HE WILL SOLVE IT'

The sources predict that Tesla will find it difficult to fully implement the new dry-coating manufacturing process before the end of this year, and perhaps not until 2023.

Stan Whittingham, a co-inventor of lithium-ion batteries and a 2019 Nobel laureate, believes Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has been overly optimistic on the time frame for commercializing the new technique.

"I think he will solve it, but it won't be as quick as he likes. It's going to take some time to really test it," he said.

In August, Musk told shareholders Tesla would be producing high volumes of 4680 batteries by the end of 2022.

According to the experts, Tesla has only been able to cut the Model Y's battery cost by between $2,000 and $3,000 so far, about half the savings Tesla had planned for the 4680 battery, which it unveiled two years ago.

But those savings have come mainly from the design of the new 4680 cells, which are bigger than those in Tesla's current 2170 battery, they said.

But the heart of the drive to push down costs is the dry-coating technology, which Musk has described as revolutionary but difficult to execute.

According to the sources, it should deliver as much as half of the $5,500 cost savings Tesla hopes to achieve, by slashing manufacturing costs and one-time capital spending.

Tesla acquired the know-how in 2019 when it paid over $200 million for Maxwell Technologies, a company in San Diego making ultracapacitors, which store energy for devices that need quick bursts of electricity, such as camera flashes.

Building on Maxwell's technology, Tesla began making 4680 dry cells this year, first in a pilot near its Fremont, California plant and more recently at its new global headquarters in Austin, Texas.

'BEST IN CLASS'

The technology allows Tesla to ditch the older, more complex and costly wet-coating process. It's expensive because it needs a substantial amount of electricity, machinery, factory space, time, and a large labour force.

To coat electrodes in the wet process, battery producers mix the materials with toxic binder solvents. Once coated, the electrodes are dried in massive ovens, with the toxic solvents that evaporate in the process being recovered, treated and recycled - all adding to the cost.

With the new technology, electrodes are coated using different binders with little use of liquids, so they don't need to be dried. That means it's cheaper, faster and also less environmentally damaging.

Because of its simplicity, the process allows Tesla to cut capital spending by a third and slash both the footprint of a factory and its energy consumption to a 10th of what would be needed for the wet process, Tesla has said.

But the company has had trouble commercializing the process, the sources said.

Maxwell developed its dry-coat process for ultracapacitors, but the challenge with coating electrodes for EV batteries is that they are much larger and thicker, which makes it hard to coat them with consistent quality at mass-production speeds.

"They can produce in small volume, but when they started big volume production, Tesla ended up with many rejects, too many," one of the sources with ties to Tesla told Reuters.

Production yields were so low that all the anticipated cost savings from the new process were lost, the source said.

If all the potential efficiencies from dry-coating and the bigger cells are realised, the manufacturing cost for the Model Ys 4680 battery pack should fall to $5,000 to $5,500 - roughly half the cost of the 2170 pack, according to the sources.

The rising cost of battery materials and energy pose a risk to those forecasts, however, and Tesla has not yet been able to significantly improve the new battery's energy density or the amount of power it packs, as Musk has promised.

Still, despite those factors, the savings Tesla is expected to achieve will end up making the 4680 battery the industry's "best in class" for the foreseeable future, one source said.

BULKING UP

Much of the $2,000 to $3,000 cost savings achieved with the 4680 battery so far has come from other improvements, and using bigger cells has proven particularly potent, the experts said.

The 4680 cells are 5.5 times the size of the 2170 cells by volume. The older cylindrical cells measure 21mm in diameter and 70mm in height, hence the name. The 4680 cells have a 46mm diameter and are 80mm high.

With the older technology, Tesla needs about 4,400 cells to power the Model Y and there are 17,600 points that need to be welded - four per cell - to create a pack that can be integrated into the car, the sources said.

The 4680 battery pack only needs 830 cells and Tesla has changed the design so that there are only two weld points per cell, slashing the welding to 1,660 points and leading to significant cost savings.

The simpler design also means there are fewer connectors and other components, which has allowed Tesla to save further on labour costs and machine time.

Another source of efficiency has been the larger cell's far sturdier outer case. Tesla can now bond the cells together with adhesive into a rigid honeycomb-like pack which is then connected directly to the inner body structure of the Model Y.

This eliminates the intermediate step of bundling cells into larger modules which are then installed in a traditional battery pack, the sources said.

By shifting to this "cell to vehicle" design, Tesla can reduce the weight of a traditional 1,200-pound battery pack by 55 pounds or more - saving about $500 to $600 per pack, one of the sources said.

But mastering the dry-coating technique remains the holy grail.

"Bulking up the battery cell helped a lot in boosting efficiency, but pushing for 50% cost savings for the cell as a whole is another matter," one source said.

"That will depend on whether Tesla can deploy the dry-coating process successfully in a factory."

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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Teslas latest battery technology is promising, but theres more | Mint - Mint