Pages

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Batteries that charge themselves when given a shake

I have the Seiko 5 Superior Automatic wrist watch that runs without any batteries all it requires is a shake to keep it running no maintenance at all. What if that was same with most of your battery operated devices like your remote controls  led torches and other portable devices which run on AA/AAA size batteries. Thats what a Japan based company named Brother Industries Ltd revealed in an event (TEchno Frontier 2010) in Tokyo this past week. The company call it "Vibration-powered Generating Battery". The company mainly specializes in Printers and printing solution based products.

How It works?

Now when it comes to normal disposable batteries they consists of chemicals which undergo electrochemical reactions to generate electric current. The Vibration-powered Generating Battery however has no chemicals in it, it works on the electro-mechanical method like a dynamo found in a bicycle. The battery casing has a coil a magnet and a condenser (capacitor to store current). Whenever the battery receives a shaking movement the magnets slide up and down, a current is induced in the coil and is stored in the condenser for use. The batteries are not that powerful they can only run devices that require less power. The average power output is between 10 to 180mW  and the voltage output is around 3.2 volts from the two prototype batteries. It is good enough for a T.V.remote control which is under constant handling Brother industries said that for a T.V remote it would require a shake every 10-30 button presses. Not bad for a prototype.


Source  http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp


The only problem here is the company has no plans to commercialize this as a product. The product was created to address the growing problem of hazardous waste that is created due to used batteries. The Prototype is available as AA and AAA size. It would be great if this product is further developed and made more efficient for more application  the product has a huge market out there.



No comments:

Post a Comment