Samsung develops flexible, bendable, rollable battery

Samsung seems to be on a roll. After announcing the mind-boggling speeds it managed to achieve with its 5G, Sammy's entry to the InterBattery 2014 exhibition in Korea shows another cool achievement.

Developed by the company's energy solutions branch – Samsung SDI – the company showed its first bendable battery. And no, not the limited bendability you can find in the LG G Flex (though, don't get us wrong, the Flex's battery is still pretty nifty), but a fully rollable, bendable, move-it-any-way-you-want battery. The prototypes that were presented look more like rubber straws, than the flat slabs that we are used to seeing lately, and it is unclear whether this is out of structural necessity, or if they were shaped that way due to the fact that Sammy plans to employ them in smart wearables.

Now, let's get something out of the way – the new tech is not ready for commercial production yet, as the bending still puts a strain on, and eventually damages, the battery cells, however – this is still a major step forward in battery tech. Samsung SDI claims that the flexible juiceboxes will be ready for mass production within the next 3 years.

The way the researchers achieved the desired effect isn't by revolutionizing the way the Li-Ion battery works. Rather, they played around with structural design and improved the quality of the used materials.

It would be interesting to see what capacity the batteries would be able to carry, and how much juice they would provide for wearables. This tech could also mean easier-to-carry portable chargers, exotic smartphone designs, and who knows what else.

Can you think of something that would employ a flexible tube of a battery to create a mindblowing design / novelty?


source: Tizen Indonesia (translated) via Gizmodo