OXIS Manufacturing Capabilities

OXIS has a flexible, scalable manufacturing capability dedicated to product development at its headquarters in Culham, Oxfordshire, UK. We have well equipped laboratories with state of the art equipment and one of the largest dry room facilities in Europe. OXIS can supply materials, components, cells or even demonstration batteries to the market; from development partners through to licensees or OEM’s and end users.

OXIS has all the necessary manufacturing facilities under one roof, offering flexibility to systemically control and modify any aspect of cell design. OXIS can adapt its Li-S technology to meet the unique demands of strategic markets; efficiently adapting chemistries, materials, cell configuration and performance characteristics as required. Once designed, cell manufacture can be scaled using OXIS automation equipment and its partners.

Materials Manufacture

OXIS materials manufacture focuses on two key areas protected by OXIS IP; Electrolyte formulation and Cathode manufacture.

Electrolyte is continuously manufactured in up to 100L batches that are routinely shipped globally. At full capacity, this facility can provide electrolyte for Ca. 5 million cells per annum. OXIS typically manufactures electrolytes with less than 50ppm moisture in its dry rooms. Electrolyte formulation is supported with a range of drying equipment including solvent distillation and ovens for vacuum drying powders. Quality control testing includes moisture, purity, pH, conductivity, rheology and colorimetry.

Cathode is manufactured and supplied globally on the reel. OXIS has a state of the art coating line capable today of coating at full capacity, cathode for Ca. 2.5 million cells per annum. This is housed in a class 1000 clean room with a class 100 coating environment. In support of this facility OXIS has a smaller development coater available and a range of calendaring, milling and mixing equipment to suit any scale. Base materials can be continuously milled in up to 40Kg batches whilst Sulfur slurries can be manufactured in high shear mixers in batches up to 200Kg. Quality control testing includes Moisture, Rheology, Purity, Surface capacity, Wettability, Porosity, Surface area and scanning electron microscopy. OXIS has powder handling facilities to handle any new materials.

Cell Manufacture

Prototype cell production is housed in a 500 sqm dry room facility. OXIS has  dedicated cell assembly and product development teams capable of delivering a range of cell designs with a variety of formulations. Cell production is supported by production development concentrating on improving the  engineering and electrochemical formation. Further input comes from the Cell modelling team, using  a variety of tools and techniques to enable better understanding and exploitation of Lithium Sulfur technology. OXIS  offers several adaptable cell configurations for demonstration products. These manual lines can each produce Ca. 5,000-10,000 cells per annum at full capacity (depending on design).

OXIS is working with Codemig, The Minas Gerais Economic Development Company, Brazil to achieve Li-S cell production milestones and the move towards commercialisation through automated production lines.
We plan for the manufacturing plant to be capable of an annual cell production performance of 1 000 000 by 2020.

Cell Testing Abilities

OXIS has a dedicated and independent test team with extensive facilities, which have been developed over a number of years, to provide a wide range of capabilities in support of the activities of multiple departments within OXIS. It is considered to be a critical component in the ongoing development and advancement of OXIS technologies. It includes all kinds of testing from research and development testing of new materials through to cells and customer application specific testing.

Focused both on safety and quality, we provide testing competence and access to the infrastructure and services required to support the ongoing testing requirements of our business, whilst also providing verification and compliance assessment of our cell technology against industry standards and regulatory compliance specifications.

We follow proven processes and use industry best practice to ensure a consistent and robust approach to our testing and associated data handling.

Module and Battery Manufacture

OXIS’ dedicated Battery Development and Integration team advises and assists companies and organisations to develop new batteries for different applications.
It supports battery integration partners, designing commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) and custom systems as well as assisting systems integrators with in-house battery design capability.
OXIS has developed several prototype batteries from powering e-bikes to stackable energy storage batteries connected to photovoltaic (PV) panels and electric aircraft batteries.
The battery can be easily installed. They include communication ports, which provide full diagnostics, status indication, health and usage monitoring.
The advanced BMS have not only ensured the optimal operation of the cells within the battery but have also provided an additional level of safety including:
• Over-charge protection
• Over-discharge protection
• External short circuit protection
• Over temperature monitoring