Bringing ideas to life: Saft's R&D process
Innovation - April 4, 2024
Many of our customers work at the cutting edge of technology, and so they’re often looking for innovative battery solutions for their new products. Sometimes we’ve already got the right batteries within the Saft range. But when there’s not an immediate answer, it’s our Research and Development (R&D) team who take the lead.
We spoke with Romain Cayzac, Technical Manager of the CSE division in Poitiers – one of our R&D department - to find out how projects are prioritized, and how the team meets the challenge of developing new products.
We’re quite efficient at choosing which project to work on next because our roadmap is setup with a five-year destination and updated every year. This roadmap is built on market trends, state of the art of current technology and emerging ones. Really it is a case of weighing up the urgency of the new request and the importance of making it based on several objective factors and we follow our planning matrix to make sure we focus on the most vital projects first.
Well, you can imagine that ‘everything’ is important, urgent, and must be done. But there must be some kind of scale and level project ups and downs. Different situations can prompt us to act faster.
For example, it could be a regulatory issue that is driving the urgency. It could be a customer who is keen to take a product to market very quickly. It could be the emergence of a new strategic market and Saft wanting to be prepared for it. It can be also an opportunity.
In general, regulatory requirements tend to come first – we have no choice in having to meet those deadlines. Then we’ll always look to support our customers in their needs…
The first thing we always look to do is properly define the required specification. That way you can avoid losing time throughout the project and work more efficiently. For that we have conversations and exchanges with the customer making the request of our team. We work with them to help get the project brief as specific as possible.
At the same time, we assemble a small team of people who are experts and have a broad understanding of a lot of different elements (electrochemistry, mechanics, process…). Their role is to develop that clear specification, to outline what is required, what can or cannot be done…
We share that with the customer, exchange again, and come back with new requirements or validation, and back and forth.
It can perhaps feel like we have to pause and take a step back at the outset of the project. But doing that first bit correctly is so much more helpful than rushing into the development phase - an idea must be maturated.
I joined Saft in 2011, and have always worked in this department. It’s fair to say things have changed. The main reason is the additional regulation, the safety of batteries in general, and the “volume” of projects and their complexity.
Our job is not so much to develop an electrochemical cell, but to develop a smart system that provides energy.
Definitely. The trend in IoT is for batteries that demand more energy, a longer life duration, more power. That’s a real challenge, it’s hard to find that balance at high performance. You’re really at the cutting edge of what a cell can do when you’re looking for both power and energy at that level.
Of course, I enjoy that sort of challenge. It’s how you make progress. When we’re able to find a way to get that sort of output from a cell it’s very interesting – both technically and scientifically.
Yes and no. We have several ‘Eureka’ moments, if you will, each day. That’s what happens if you are innovative in the way you work. But those moments often don’t work out the way you hope, or expect.
Often we have to explore a number of different ideas to find the right solution. Sometimes we’ll test a theory of applying something we’ve seen in another technology, or trying to use a component we’ve seen in other projects, only for it to not work when you put it through rigorous testing.
It’s rarely the pathway we’ve worked ‘the most’ on that ends up being the solution we were looking for. Innovation is not a straightforward process: we try different possible routes towards a solution that both meets the requirements and stands up to testing. But it’s also why it’s such an exciting place to work.
As engineers and scientists we’re always interested in the technical aspects of a new approach. But simply being able to do something isn’t enough. What’s important is having useable cells at the end – and an energy system solution that can be industrialized and deployed by the customer.
I actually think the most exciting part of the job is not only the emerging technologies for batteries, but also how we can adapt and evolve a ‘mature’ technology. The best solutions tend not to need something completely new, but innovative ways to rework what we already know. There are still plenty of things to discover and improve.
