Lithium Technology has announced that it has received a purchase order from Lockheed Martin for 1070 ultra high power lithium-ion cells to be used for the ATLAS V Launch Vehicle. The order is valued at $171,200. LTC leverages its unique and proprietary technology, to provide state-of-the-art lithium-ion cells with superior performance at extreme conditions.
The cells in development for Lockheed Martin each have a nominal capacity of 7.5Ah and can deliver 500A pulses.
"Due to the demanding requirements of their applications, Lockheed Martin conducted an extensive series of testing on our cells and was impressed with the consistent high-power performance," said Dr. Andrew J. Manning, president and chief operating officer of LTC.
Lockheed Martin first contracted LTC in 2004 to evaluate the company's Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) cells in an initiative to upgrade the batteries being used for the ATLAS V Launch Vehicle. In order to meet Lockheed's stringent requirements, LTC enhanced their standard cells. The prototypes were extremely successful and, as a result, Lockheed Martin is proceeding into a full qualification effort intended to certify the cells for flight on the Atlas V. The purchase order for over 1,000 of these special ultra power cells will be delivered to Lockheed by January 2008.
"This is a strategic step in growing our business and represents a major opportunity for LTC," commented Manning. "Lockheed Martin has numerous applications for both high-power and high-energy lithium-ion batteries in its aerospace programs and other systems integration projects. These applications require high reliability and enhanced performance, which are only available today in COTS cells from LTC."
The Lockheed contract affirms LTC's technology and its superiority in lithium-ion cell manufacturing. LTC's ultra high power cells, similar to the ones that Lockheed Martin ordered, retain low internal resistance from a fully charged to a fully discharged state, which allows a more robust performance and greatly reduces concern about heat generation for high pulse rate applications.
