Public Funding for Krystan Limited

We seek help to design a safety product that will accurately test the voltage of lithium batteries after use and after charging. If this voltage drops out of a narrow safe range (<3V or >4.2V) then the cells can be dangerous (i.e. spontaneous combustion, fire hazard). This is an increasing concern at present, as the UK is now flooded with many cheap and badly made imported cells and battery chargers, with poor accuracy in terms of both charging and calibration. Safety legislation with lithium cells is becoming increasingly tight as the authorities become more aware of the potential dangers.Our idea is to design and make a device which would be placed in parallel with the battery & appliance – this would display afterwards the true operating range of the cells (i.e. are they truly being charged and used safely?).We have contacts and some capability on the manufacturing side of things but need electrical/technical expertise to help us conceptualise an idea and test prototypes to give us a working product.Any products that can do this at present are part of more expensive appliances that also do other things as well. This product would be an inexpensive way of testing lithium cells without the need to invest in complicated/expensive machinery.We expect that either a local university department, technology centre or specialist outside consultancy will have the required electrical/technical expertise to get our idea to the stage where we can arrange for production. We would make any ultimate decision on where to tender based on the suitability of the proposal provided and the associated costs. Therefore this way we would expect to obtain better value from any award.