Joplin’s ZAF Energy Systems has announced a partnership it says will allow it to step into the aerospace and military markets.
The local battery-maker has partnered with a company called Aerojet Rocketdyne, based in Sacramento, California, to expand ZAF’s nickel-zinc chemistry products into applications such as defense and space travel.
Kirk Plautz, vice president of business development for ZAF, said Aerojet produces a “battery management system,” which he said is what “makes the batteries smart.”
“(It has) the ability to monitor that battery and to kind of monitor the health of it and elongate that health through some of the algorithms that are put into the battery’s main system,” Plautz said. “The battery is a storage device, but the battery management system makes it smart and makes it able to store and deliver the energy when needed.”
Randy Moore, ZAF president and CEO, has said that the nickel-zinc chemistry the company uses in producing its batteries could eventually replace the traditional lead-acid battery entirely. Moore says the nickel-zinc batteries are both more powerful and longer-lasting. To this point, the batteries ZAF has built in Joplin have been those used for cars, boats, recreational vehicles, data centers and heavy equipment.
“Nickel-zinc batteries are ideally suited to replace lead-acid batteries where performance, weight, and life-cycle requirements need to be improved,” Moore said in a statement. “We are excited to work with Aerojet Rocketdyne. Together we will make our nickel-zinc battery systems smarter and expand our reach for mission-critical applications.”
Plautz said that the partnership made sense because military, defense and aerospace are industries where the attributes Moore mentioned are most important.
“I think what the relationship with Aerojet does is it allows ZAF the ability to have a proven industry leader to go into some of these markets and deliver an entire system,” he said. “Our battery is a small component of the entire system, and the ability to work with someone like Aerojet, who has a legacy in the military and aerospace markets, really opens up a lot of doors we can push forward together with.”
Potential
Kirk Plautz, vice president of business development for ZAF, said that the partnership with Aerojet itself is not expected to lead to an increase in jobs. The goal is to open new product lines and revenue streams that could eventually lead to expansions and new job opportunities.
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