High Rate Powder Mixing

Thermal batteries are a mission-critical component utilized in virtually every weapon system. Four types of pellets comprise the energy-producing portion of a thermal battery. These include: (1) anode pellets, composed of Li(Si) alloy and electrolytesalt, (2) cathode pellets, consisting of either FeS2 or CoS2 and electrolyte salt, (3) separator pellets, consisting of MgO and electrolyte salt and (4) heat pellets containing iron and potassium perchlorate. A pellet is manufactured by compacting itspowdered constituents in a die cavity. Pellet production has typically been the rate-limiting step in thermal battery manufacture; hence, press cycle times have been reduced to at/near their minimum practical values. A separate SBIR effort has beenproposed to develop/ demonstrate multi-cavity dies to double or triple the number of pellets produced per press cycle.As press throughput rates are increased, the bottleneck in the manufacturing process will switch to raw material powder processing. This proposed SBIR project focuses on identifying and addressing the design challenges associated with substantiallyincreasing powder production rates. Along with successful incorporation of multi-cavity die technology, this effort will result in a substantial increase in thermal battery production capability.