Amprius is working on ensuring that its wearable battery fits into military operations. The battery will be part of a new Amprius battery vest, which will use batteries with silicone anodes to give soldiers twice the energy storage as the current generation.
The idea here is pretty simple. Soldiers out in the field need to be able to carry the maximum amount of energy without being weighed down. The current generation of the battery vests that they use is made by Inventus Power. And Amprius is just one of a few companies that are supplying silicon-anode safe lithium cells for the project.
Amprius says the battery pack is part of an ongoing integration into advanced military gear, which will provide improved on-the-ground power solutions for soldiers in the U.S. Army. The Amprius battery vest is made up of the company’s SiMaxx safe cells and was constructed by Inventus Power.
The silicon-anode cells used in Amprius’ battery packs offer up to 10 times more power storage than lithium ions. This allows for better energy capacity, and the nanowire configuration that Amprius utilizes is also better at accommodating volume expansion and contraction that are involved in movement.
It’s these nanowires that help prevent the silicone from degrading due to the movement, something that soldiers need to be able to do without worrying about losing their power storage capacity. Beyond just creating wearable battery tech, though, Amrpius has also garnered attention from electric aviation, as well as satellite and drone industries.
A conformable battery pack like that featured in the Amprius battery vest could help with a lot of industries, as silicon-anode batteries would allow other industries to tap into higher-density power storage options, including creating better batteries for electric vehicles and more.