Black Diamond Structures, a developer and manufacturer of nanomaterial additives for lead-acid and lithium batteries, opened a new testing facility for advanced batteries at its plant in Austin, Texas in February, bringing total spending on analytical and testing equipment by the firm to $2 million.

The testing will be carried out on its own products but the firm will also test control batteries that do not contain the additives so that a valid comparison of performance benefits can be made, chief marketing officer Dru Kefalos told BESB.

“The primary purpose of the investment in this enhanced testing capability is to support our product development process for new nanomaterial-based solutions and the rapidly growing application developments with our customers around the globe,” said Kefalos.

“Our facility is used to test a wide range of lead-acid batteries. For example, we specifically added 16-300A circuits so that we could support start-stop testing like the SBA-S0101 and other high current testing.

“This facility is strictly used by us and our customers to support our nanomaterial development process and our customers’ need to develop higher performing batteries.”

Black Diamond Structures is a joint venture between Molecular Rebar Design, whose technology uses carbon nanotube additives in a battery’s active material, and the global chemical company SABIC.

The company was created in 2014 to develop and promote the Molecular Rebar technology for use in the energy storage, coatings and composites industries.