Jenax's J.Flex Offers Safe, Thin, Highly-Flexible Li-Ion Batteries for Wearables and More
The J.Flex technology is claimed to beat out the competition in both performance while bent or even folded and in safety.
Korean wearable electronics specialist Jenax has showcased its J.Flex technology at CES this month, promising a safe lithium-polymer battery which is thinner and more flexible than the competition — to the point of being foldable into origami.
Demonstrated during CES this month, J.Flex is claimed to offer equal performance in flat and bent form — even, Jenax claims, with constant dynamic bending of the sort you might find in a wearable design, with automated testing proving the claim up to 10,000 bends from flat to a 20mm radius. J.Flex is also claimed to support the creation of new shapes and sizes not easily made using rival battery technology.
Jenax goes further than offering a battery that's simply flexible and shapable, though: The company claims its design is also safer than the competition. It has tested the design for short-circuit protection, over charge and discharge, over current, environmental conditions including high storage temperature and low storage pressure, heating tests up to 130˚C (around 266˚F) and mechanical abuses including impact testing, drop testing, and nail penetration testing — all of which, the company claims, it passed with flying colors.
"What we’re doing at Jenax is putting batteries into locations where they couldn't be before," Jenax' head of strategic planning EJ Shin told IEEE Spectrum in an interview at CES, where the company was showing off J.Flex implementations including a sensor-equipped football helmet, a medical sensor patch, and wearable power banks. "You don't want to carry a big, bulky battery on your body all the time. It's heavy, uncomfortable, and sticks out from your clothes. That’s when you need very thin, flexible batteries."
More information on J.Flex is available on the Jenax website.