Charging Ahead: Acculon Labs’ Future and the Era of Innovation

Full Transcript:

Introduction to Acculon Labs and Recent Changes

Betsy Barry 

Hello, everyone! It’s Betsy from Acculon, and I’m here today with Matt Volk, the director of our world-class testing lab, Acculon Labs, and we are going to talk today about all of the big changes that have been happening behind the scenes, in front of the scenes. And really, I just wanted to bring Matt on and get his take on the future of Acculon Labs and how the investment from EcoBattery is impacting Acculon Labs and just everything that’s been going on recently: a lot of big things. So, hi, Matt. Thanks for joining me. 

Matt Volk 

Yeah, happy to be here.

Betsy Barry 

So I think the first thing I want to start out talking about is obviously the investment, Eco’s investment in Acculon.  And because Labs is obviously a part of the Acculon family, but we recently brought it out from underneath the Acculon umbrella. And so I’m wondering, what does that mean? What does the investment mean for Acculon Labs?

I know, you know, I talked last week with Andrew about what it means for Acculon Energy, but I’m curious about, you know, Acculon Labs as its own agnostic entity. 

Impact of EcoBattery’s Investment on Acculon Labs

Matt Volk

Yeah, mean, moving out, you know, as kind of its own thing, we’re really getting in the forefront of pushing our testing services, looking to be a, you know, major testing house. You lot of these new companies that are working to get into the battery industry, working to develop their products, you know, will look to us as someone with authority, and who can help with that testing. Alongside that, with both Eco Battery and Accuion Energy’s new products that they’re working to launch, one of the things a lot of companies don’t think about is testing. And all development starts and ends with testing. You needed to figure out what battery you’re going to use, you need to test components, and then at the end, you need to test your final product, all through that entire process. Most companies have to go to an outside lab. So having your own test house within your own company is great. 

And we’ve been operating for over 16 years now, tons of experience in the automotive industry, working with battery companies, and slowly moving into other industries. We’re able to take all of that knowledge and all of that capability and apply that to all of our new products being developed. So it’s really giving us a leg up on that development and helping us move into these new markets much faster.

Betsy Barry 

And it gives Eco access to all of our experience and expertise, and knowledge as well.

Matt Volk 

Absolutely. We’ve actually already started working with Eco, done some testing for them. We’re doing some cell benchmarking, being able to help develop, see what new products are out there, what kind of batteries we want to expand into for these products.

Strategic Initiatives and Future Directions

Betsy Barry 

So that’s a good segue into my next question, which is, are there any kind of strategic initiatives some interesting things that are in the pipeline that you’re excited about in the immediate future?

Matt Volk 

Yeah, it’s kind of interesting how the timing worked out. know, Acculon Labs hasn’t actually been around as its own entity for that long. So kind of as part of Acculon Labs moving up to what it is, we really had to kind of reevaluate what our strategy was there, what we wanted to be able to cater to. And then, you know, next to that, we also had the whole growing with Eco Battery. So we’ve kind of had a double look at what we are and how we want to change.  One of the big things we’ve been developing fairly recently is a flash characterization program.

We’ve done a lot of characterization over the years for a lot of companies, primarily automotive, whose development cycles last years. The problem is that a lot of these newer industries–newer to the lithium space, I’ll say industrial, commercial,  your energy storage–they don’t have the time. Things need to get into the market now. We can’t spend three years testing a cell to then start building a module to then start building a pack.  It would be great if we could. So what we looked at is how we can characterize as best as possible, as quickly as possible, where you’re still getting enough data that you pretty well, you know, program a BMS, you know, give it all the capabilities it needs to be able to function in the field while really slimming down that time, essentially to less than a month. And so that’s what we’re calling our flash characterization program. So, you know, it’s really good for that, you know, quick to market BMS.

It also works as a great benchmarking tool because it’s a fairly standardized test plan. And so we can very quickly run through many different types of cells,  both evaluating different new chemistries emerging, as well as looking at different sources.  The markets are kind of crazy now with batteries. Every week we’re looking at new countries sourced from, looking at domestic. So being able to just pull all that in and very quickly check, we’re able to move much faster in that.

The Importance of In-House Testing and Future Vision

Betsy Barry

You know, it just struck me as we were talking, I know that Acculon Energy supply chain diversification is a big part of our company’s, you know, ethos now. We don’t want to have to table product development because of, you know, a geopolitical situation. There’s just so much uncertainty around that.  And it’s just dawning on me how important the battery testing lab, how Acculon Labs, is such a huge part of our ability to achieve that objective in Acculon Energy. That’s actually interesting. I just had a little epiphany there that we really do have a luxury, I guess, to have the lab in-house, that we can have just massive amounts of data and testing going on all the time, that gives us just insight into suppliers, and that gives us a leg up on safety, quality, you name it. That’s super interesting.

Matt Volk 

Yeah. So the fact that our electrochemists can get a new set of cells from a potential vendor and literally just walk them down the hall, hand them to us, and we’ll stick them on tests that day. 

Betsy Barry 

Yeah, that’s amazing.

Matt Volk 

So it streamlines everything.

Betsy Barry 

Yeah, that’s exciting. I’ve always actually kind of had admiration for Labs and Acculon’s synergy in that respect, and how it just drives product development in such a seamless way.

Testing is just something that happens in the beginning, middle, and end.  And I think that that is something that makes our situation a little bit special. And I’m excited now that we can offer that for Eco as well. I think that’s going to create just an optimal context for getting important products into the market quicker. Speaking of quick, or maybe the opposite of quick:  Last question, because I know you’re a busy person.  Five years from now, like several years from now. I mean, we talk a lot about the next three months, six months, a year, but what do you envision for the lab looking out a few years in advance, based on sort of our pivot and the direction that we’re heading now?

Matt Volk 

Ooh, that’s a great question.  I mean, one of the things for sure, the lab is always moving, you know, one of our mottos is never stand still, continuous improvement.  We’re always looking for the next thing, looking for ways to improve how we do things. You know, the flash characterization is just one of those many examples. We’ve been developing new test programs. Every year it’s changing, pulling in this wealth of knowledge,  with the branching out the way it is as a new company, you know, pulling in a lot more of our own customers, you know, but at the same time doing a lot with Acculon Energy and its product development and really just becoming an authority in battery testing and helping to push the market, examining new cells coming out, new chemistries, and just being able to help us stay on the cutting edge.

Betsy Barry 

So that’s a good vision for the future. So I want to thank you for showing up and chatting with me yet again. 

Matt Volk 

Absolutely happy to do it.

Betsy Barry

Until the next time, Bye!