Research and Development

Over the last decade PMB Defence has developed a strong Research and Development (R&D) culture to support the fundamental goal of improving battery performance for submarines and submariners.

PMB’s R&D capabilities span a wide range of areas including battery system design, product design that is informed by our understanding of and improvement to underlying chemistries.   We have R&D experience across several battery chemistries: Lead-acid, Nickel-Zinc and Lithium-ion.  Our core expertise includes; lead-alloys, active material selection and analysis, ionic liquid electrolyte, lithium-ion cell safety and Nickel-Zinc cell design.

PMB invests in R&D for improved battery chemistry, product design and the investigation of candidate new technologies.  Innovations arising have grown into development contracts with defence customers such as the Australian Future Submarine Program (ASFP), Australia’s Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Swedish Government FMV through Saab-Kockums.

PMB has enhanced its R&D culture through investment in state of the art facilities.  This includes specialty laboratories for both Lead-acid and Nickel-Zinc technologies; a suite of build and test facilities to support prototyping of Lead-acid, Nickel-Zinc and Lithium-ion battery designs; an electronics laboratory; and a large array of custom battery test equipment.  In 2019 PMB was the successful recipient of two grants to further enhance our in-house testing capability; a Defence Global Competitiveness Grant to establish a dedicated New Technology Battery Test Facility as well as a Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grant for procurement of a unique high-performance test system for Lead-acid batteries.

Over the years PMB has also partnered with universities, research organisations and other businesses around the world to successfully transition science and engineering solutions into PMB products.