CEOCFO-Members Login
Become A Member!
|
This is a printer friendly page!
Power Technology has all
of the pieces in place to demonstrate the value of its deep cycle battery technology to
manufacturers
Technology
Alternate Battery Technology
(PWTC-OTC: BB)
Power Technology, Inc.
109 N. Post Oak Lane – Suite 422
Houston, TX 77024
Phone: 713-621-4310
Bernard J. Walter
Chairman and CEO
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFOinterviews.com
June 1, 2006
Company Profile:
Power Technology Inc. is an alternative energy research and development company which owns
award winning battery technology and has developed batteries that are smaller, weigh less,
have more ampere hour capacity, increased energy density, less lead, are more environment
friendly, and have superior recharge capabilities.
CEOCFO: Mr. Walter, what attracted you to Power Technology
and what is your vision for the future?
Mr. Walter: “I was excited about Power Technology’s
battery; PWTC had developed new battery technology that enables it to make smaller,
lighter and more environmentally friendly batteries that generate more electricity. The
value of the technology and its profit potential just excited me.”
CEOCFO: Where are you in the process with the technology and
what is different about it?
Mr. Walter: “In a typical lead acid battery you have
positive plates and negative plates. In any battery, what causes electricity to flow is an
electro-chemical reaction between the chemicals that are in the battery paste on the
positive plate and the chemicals that are in the battery paste on the negative plate. Most
lead acid batteries have flat lead plates. We have a very brilliant inventor named Joey
Jung, our chief technology officer, who figured out that if you take a piece of
reticulated vitreous carbon foam, which is a web like foam made of pure carbon, and slice
it into thin sheets and coat it with a lead tin alloy and use that as an electrode,
you have substantially more surface area. Since you have more surface area on the
electrodes and you have more battery paste in contact with the electrodes, it discharges
more electricity.”
CEOCFO: Is your battery patented?
Mr. Walter: “We received notice from the U.S. Patent
Office that our patent would be allowed. We got that good news on March the 8th
(2006), and we are about to file another continuation patent on that patent for some
additional claims. Therefore, we are off to the races in that respect.”
CEOCFO: What is your strategy for bringing your new battery
to the marketplace?
Mr. Walter: “Our business plan does not include our
building battery factories; it calls for us to license our technology to established
battery manufacturers and charge them an upfront licensing fee and a royalty on every one
of our electrodes that they make. That is our big picture business strategy. The battery
companies we have met with want to know that our current collector can be manufactured in
a commercially reasonable manner, in sufficient quantities, at a reasonable cost. We have
designed the equipment necessary to do that and we are building a pilot plant. We believe
we can demonstrate to battery manufacturers how to make the reticulated vitreous carbon
foam; how to attach the lead frame to it; how to apply the lead tin alloy by electrolysis,
and how to apply the battery paste. We are in the process of setting up our pilot plant.
Manufacturing equipment is being delivered and we believe that by the mid June 2006, we
will begin manufacturing carbon foam. We have met with battery manufacturers and
provided them with our current collectors for them to test and analyze.
For example, we’ve been to Taiwan, and met with a battery company called, Kung
Long Batteries. They have two plants in Taiwan and one in Vietnam and we have provided
them with our current collectors. Kung Long has used them to make a battery and it is in
the process of testing and evaluating our technology. We believe that their test results
will be the same as everyone else who has independently tested our technology and that
Kung Long will be interested in proceeding with a transaction with us.”
CEOCFO: If the batteries will be better and last longer,
wouldn’t that ultimately result in lost money for the manufacturer; so why are they
interested?
Mr. Walter: “Anytime you have an improved product, the
consumers are going to want to buy it. Our battery is an improvement over existing deep
cycle batteries for use in electric vehicles, such as wheel chairs, golf carts, hybrid
vehicles, electric cars and electric bicycles, any vehicle that is powered by electricity.
If the manufacturers of these products know that they can employ a battery that will allow
them to have a superior product, then they realize there will be a great demand for that
product. Therefore, I think that the manufacturers will fall in line and try to meet that
demand.”
CEOCFO: Are you focused on a particular area or battery
manufacturers in general?
Mr. Walter: “Our end use is for what we call ‘deep
cycle’ batteries, which are batteries that discharge a large amount of energy over an
extended period of time, such as a golf cart that may be used for 36 holes, before it is
recharged. It may also be an electric vehicle that you would drive all day. Because our
battery recharges much faster than conventional lead acid batteries, it is perfect for
solar energy systems. Those are the kinds of consumer-oriented products our batteries will
power. Individual battery manufacturers will not have to retrofit their plant in order to
make our battery. The process for manufacturing a battery with our plate in it is very
similar in many respects, because the same battery case and manufacturing process can be
used. The battery case does not know that it is getting one of our plates instead of a
solid lead plate. How you insert the plates in the battery case, how you manufacture the
individual cells, how you fill the battery with the electrolyte, how you seal the case and
charge the battery, all of that is the same. Therefore, there will not be a huge cost of
retrofitting an entire plant to manufacture our battery. There is only a small part of the
plant that they will have to retrofit in order to make our particular current collectors
to put in their batteries.”
CEOCFO: So, once they see that it works, it should almost be
a no-brainer for the manufacturer.
Mr. Walter: “We certainly hope so. Our preliminary
prototype batteries were independently tested by B C Research, Inc of Vancouver, Canada,
by the Long-Yuan Shuang-Deng battery company of China and by the Catella Generics Centre
of Battery Technology ("Catella') in Sweden and everyone is getting the same results
that we obtained in our laboratory in terms of increased amount of electricity that is
generated by the plates, as compared to a regular lead acid battery.”
CEOCFO: Is there much competition in the alternate battery
area?
Mr. Walter: “There is huge competition; there are
battery manufacturers all over the world that are striving to make new and better
batteries. There are different technologies that are underway and each of them has its
advantages and its disadvantages.”
CEOCFO: How do you decide who to target as far as potential
users and how do you get your product in front of them?
Mr. Walter: “In terms of the battery manufacturers, we
have identified several of them and we have had discussions with a many of them. We have
had a peer reviewed scientific article published about our new technology in the Journal
of Power Sources. We have hired independent consultants who are recognized as experts in
the battery industry to evaluate our battery. Therefore, we have gotten the exposure that
we believe that we need. What the battery manufacturers are waiting for now is to see our
pilot plant, in production and see that it is working and economically viable. We are very
optimistic about our plan and being able to demonstrate to manufacturers hem that our
product can be manufactured economically. If you talk to a deep cycle battery manufacturer
or an equipment manufacturer whose product uses deep cycle batteries, and if you tell them
that you have a battery that is smaller and lighter, but will still provide more energy;
you will get their attention very quickly. The first this they will say is that they want
a battery to test. Then they will ask how to manufacture it. So we are in the process of
setting up our pilot plant so that we can start manufacturing prototypes for testing by
manufacturers and end users, and so that we can show manufactures how to make it.”
CEOCFO: Any new product can be costly to develop; how are you
funded?
Mr. Walter: “We have recently closed a funding with
Cornell Capital Partners, LP and we believe that we are funded properly. We have several
hundred thousand dollars in the bank and we are on budget and on stream. We recently had
some warrants that were exercised and so we believe that we are in pretty good
shape.”
CEOCFO: Do you have other products and services as well that
you are working with?
Mr. Walter: “We have another patent on a pipe joining
technology, which is a patent on a particular method of joining two large diameter pipes
together instead of welding them. This would have applications for things such as in oil
and gas pipelines. Instead of a worker standing there with a welding rod and manually
applying a weld all the way around the two joint ends. We have a patent on a device where
you slide a metal sleeve over the two ends adjacent pipe and then there is a large clamp
device that fits over it. You then shoot it with a large amount of electricity and it
bonds the 3 pipes together. That has been demonstrated successfully in the lab, but we
have been focusing on the battery technology first before we start spending all of the
money to develop that on a commercial basis. It is just sitting on the shelf until we get
the battery going.”
CEOCFO: You have some home uses for your battery, with regard
to back-up power.
Mr. Walter: “Yes, that is correct. We have acquired the
assets of Sentry Power Systems LLC. Sentry sells automatic battery backup power systems to
provide emergency power to residential and small business property owners for up to four
days of emergency power, based on usage and load factors. The Sentry Power System is based
on a proven and reliable concept of providing emergency backup power through the use of a
DC to AC power conversion inverters with sealed AGM batteries. The systems is wired to
specific circuits in your house or office and when the power goes out, whether it is
lightning strikes, hurricane or snow storm, you will get it instantaneously back-up power
supply. If it is your home, you may put power the circuits for the kitchen, so that you
could have your refrigerator and freezer. In office applications, the computer server and
phone systems would be powered. We are excited about that application and that product; we
are getting a lot of interest in Florida and the Gulf Coast, for the people who recently
had problems with the hurricanes.”
CEOCFO: Do you see additional acquisitions or partnerships in
the future?
Mr. Walter: “We may go into joint ventures with battery
manufacturers as opposed to licensing agreements, but for the time being we are going to
focus on our battery and our back-up power supply system.”
CEOCFO: It sounds like you have a lot to work with.
Mr. Walter: “We are very busy and very ambitious, but we
are also very excited about our technology.
CEOCFO: In closing, address potential investors; why should
they be interested and what is often missed about Power Technology?
Mr. Walter: “It has taken a long time for the company to
develop this technology to maturity, but we believe we are now on the cusp. The U.S.
Patent office has given us notice that our patent will be allowed and our pilot plant is
under construction and will soon be in operation. In addition to that, we are in
discussions with battery manufacturers concerning licensing agreements by which they would
manufacture our batteries. We project that our subsidiary, Sentry Power Technology, Inc.
will be generating income from the sale of our automatic battery backup power supply
systems. Therefore, I think that we may be just right on the edge of really taking off.
Since the beginning of this year our stock has almost doubled in price and I think
investors have seen that the potential for our company is closer to becoming
reality.”
disclaimers
Any reproduction or further distribution of this
article without the express written consent of CEOCFOinterviews.com is prohibited.
|
