Toshiba’s SCiB Rechargeable battery
With a booming appliance industry, increasing disposable incomes in high potential Asian region and introduction of multi functional equipments are the driving force behind adoption of rechargeable batteries in consumer electronics and other type of machinery but being a mature technology and with its increasing commoditization forcing vendors to distinguish their products from each other. Sanyo’s Eneloop and now Toshiba’s newly announced SCiB rechargeable batteries are good example of this type of competition. The world market for Rechargeable Battery for Consumer Product Application is to expand to $679 million by 2009. The common competitive areas for these products are their life cycle, rapid charging, power density and their Cryogen operation. Toshiba’s SCiB offers an exceptionally long life due to use of new oxide-based materials. Also the capacity loss even after 3000 charge-discharge cycle is less than 10% and achieving more than 5000 charge-discharge cycle. It takes only 5 minutes to recharge 90% of SCiB cell by using a max 50A current. And in terms of power SCiB’s power is almost equals to that of capacitors. For its Cryogenic operation it provides a sufficient discharge at temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius. Oh, did I forget? Yes, safety is also a big subject among the rechargeable batteries and SCiB is no exception, it has a structure that assures an extremely low incidence of internal short circuits, ensuring no rupture or ignition, even when an internal short circuit is forced. And no need to say all the rechargeable batteries come with a big marketing sticker that it says “Environmentally Conscious Products”. What this really mean is that you would use less battery since you don’t need replacement and the product does not have the 6 banned substance (Cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and lead (Pb)) set by RoHS (The European Union (EU) Directive on the Restriction of use of certain Hazardous Substances) and finally their effective use of energy. Toshiba’s SCiB like other rechargeable batteries has a wide target market ranging from home electronic appliances and office equipment to automobile and other type of light vehicles such as electric scooter and electric power assisted bicycles. Personally I can not wait to get rid of all those wires, we are doing it with our communication devices using various wireless technologies why not using the rechargeable batteries for our house hold appliances to cleaning up this wiring mess at home. Just a thought……
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