Press Release

Sakuu Produces World’s First 100% Dry-Printed Carbon Fiber Battery Cell on Kavian Manufacturing Platform

Kavian is also a finalist in the Battery Awards at The Battery Show North America 

 

— Performant, metal-free, and completely dry-process electrode battery cell printed with polymeric current collector (PCC) and carbon fiber veil and tested at Silicon Valley R&D facility
— PCC architecture produces batteries immune to thermal runaway 
— Kavian is finalist in Battery Show North America awards program

SAN JOSE, Calif. — (Oct.  12, 2026) — Sakuu® (www.sakuu.com), a leading provider of commercial-scale equipment and technologies to the battery and supercapacitor manufacturing industries, has printed a 100% dry anode and dry cathode metal-free battery cell using carbon composite and polymeric current collector (PCC) technology on its Kavian® manufacturing platform. A breakthrough in materials science, this fully functional metal-free cell possesses all the safety benefits of PCC architecture and all the structural integrity of carbon fiber while remaining flexible and extremely lightweight. 

“The ability to manufacture safer batteries at scale is essential to meeting surging demand across industries, yet battery manufacturing technology has been stuck in a rut for 30 years,” said Arwed Niestroj, president and chief operating officer of Sakuu. “Our dry-printed carbon fiber PCC test cell demonstrates how to produce innovative batteries that can safely power — and also conform to and strengthen — new structural designs in data centers, aerospace, transportation, wearables, and all manner of energy storage systems where failure is not an option.”

Sakuu’s carbon fiber test cell is:

• The industry’s first 100% dry-printed electrode PCC cell with carbon fiber veil
• A fully functional lithium-ion 0.5 Ahr battery cell
• Immune to thermal runaway
• Made with lightweight, inexpensive, and globally readily available materials

Kavian is a finalist for this initiative in the battery manufacturing technology category of the Battery Awards program at The Battery Show North America running October 12-15 in Detroit, with winners to be announced in an October 13 evening ceremony. Sakuu executives will be available for discussions in booth 3642 of the expo, and President Arwed Niestroj is also on the conference agenda to speak on “Revolutionizing and Onshoring Battery Manufacturing Capability Through Dry-Process Production” on October 14 at 3:50pm EDT in Room 140EF.

Revolutionary PCC Advantage
Dry-processed PCC cells possess several advantages over the standard wet-processed lithium-ion battery cells now common in everything from electric vehicles to battery energy storage system (BESS) facilities. A PCC cell is a series-connected battery, not parallel-connected like today’s standard fare. PCC cells are still made layer by layer, but each layer is individually sealed and connected directly, one on top of the other. They use a thin conductive polymer film and current flows vertically up through a stack of sealed layers, moving from one layer to the next over the entire surface of contact. Any short, defect, or puncture in the cell results in a slow dissipation of energy that does not produce excessive heat and therefore cannot produce fire. (Watch this Munro Live video.)

These types of safer battery cells are not yet widely available because they cannot be made with standard wet-process manufacturing equipment — but they can be mass produced cost effectively with Sakuu’s dry-process manufacturing technology.

PCC Breakthrough
One challenge in PCC development is that thin polymer films are flimsy and subject to wrinkling. “Wrinkles are defects that could make good electrical contact difficult or impossible,” said Karl Littau, chief technology officer of Sakuu. “Carbon fiber doesn’t wrinkle. It has unique properties that add strength and electrical conductivity to the composite in a PCC cell. Using carbon fiber veils allows us to make strong yet conformable and flexible electrode layers and current collector layers: The fibers not only penetrate the current collector, but are also embedded within the dry powder anode and cathode. This ensures intimate contact of the adjacent layers in a cell and provides a robust reinforcing network, which also conducts electricity quite well. This opens up future opportunities for structurally integrated batteries, where the aircraft, vehicle, or wearable device itself becomes the energy system.”

Sakuu has been continuously testing and improving the capabilities of the Kavian manufacturing platform at its R&D facility in Silicon Valley, where it produced this carbon fiber PCC test cell demonstrating great mechanical integrity as well as excellent interfacial contact and low contact resistance. The 100% dry process enabled by Kavian addresses key challenges in scalability, sustainability, safety, and performance, while still reducing cost and enabling manufacturers to regionalize production.

Kavian is not only the world’s first additive manufacturing solution to dry print carbon fiber battery electrodes; it can also dry print supercapacitor electrodes to meet the growing power needs of AI data centers. Moreover, the battery manufacturing benefits of Kavian also apply to supercapacitor manufacturing.

Read more about the measurable benefits of Kavian in the Sakuu newsroom and contact the Sakuu team to arrange a meeting at The Battery Show or to request more details on Kavian.

About Sakuu
Sakuu® is a leading provider of commercial-scale printing equipment and technologies to manufacturers producing batteries, electrodes, supercapacitors, and more. Its Kavian® Platform is the world's first manufacturing platform for dry printing battery electrodes, enabling rapid manufacturing innovation while reducing waste and avoiding toxins. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the Sakuu team is transforming manufacturing to power a more sustainable future. As a result, Sakuu was crowned FII8 Innovator at the Future Investment Initiative Conference and Kavian was named a Fast Company World Changing Idea and a TIME Best Invention. Discover more at www.sakuu.com.

Contact Information for Media
Sophia De Runtz
Sterling Communications for Sakuu
[email protected]