A lot of electronic systems can take full advantage of making use of customized battery packs which can quickly be installed to lessen the cost of product assembly. The custom battery pack is designed to properly fit into the space available in the system and provide easy connection to the chargers and the systems.

There are several ways to customize the custom battery pack with the aim of producing optimum capacity, shape, size, and performance of every application. Their nature of the products requiring custom packs implies that a rechargeable custom battery is needed and it is uncommon to produce a custom battery pack and get it thrown away after a single charge. Most of the time, the custom batteries are standard products with the connections and packaging being customized.

The Evolution

There used to be a time that NiCd (Nickel Cadmium) batteries were very common but as the years passed, they have gradually been phased out due to the chemical pollution potential they possess especially towards the end of the batteries' life. The ‘memory effect' of the NiCd battery made users completely discharge and recharge the battery regularly or else it would experience a rapid diminish.

On the other hand, Lithium ion is the new technology along with Lithium polymer which has battery shapes that are more exotic like the flat ones used in mobile phones and cameras. These batteries are presently dominating the market. A popular example of a custom lithium battery is the standard AA or AAA cells. There are various battery cells and they differ in performance and quality, however, there are not too many custom battery manufacturers who produce them in large quantity despite the multiple brands seen everywhere. It is not surprising that every custom battery manufacturer known on the map all have a presence in Asia.

Economic Quantities

The assembling of the custom battery pack can be labor-intensive which is usually carried out in the Far East, although it may be more economical using local assembly for smaller quantities of higher power packs.

Based on the weight, mode of transport and quantity, the economic quantity that it's worth considering will be requested to a custom battery manufacturer to supply for import. Due to various custom battery packs available, it might not be easy to tell the exact numbers but for a small battery pack having a weight of around 50 to 60 grams would be good to be conveyed via airfreight. For quantities up to 5000 units and more, sea freight is cheaper and would take 4 weeks of customs clearance.

Applications

A very useful application is the range of dog collars manufactured by Retrieva Systems, which owners use to locate their dogs using a mobile phone, internet connection or any other complementary hand-held receiver.

Initially, Retrieva was using rechargeable batteries manufactured in Europe but over time, the product became obsolete. The original li ion battery had a nominal voltage of 3.7V and a capacity of 1230mAh.

Mike Energy, a leading Hong Kong based manufacturer worked with Cyntech to develop a good replacement which was complete with an integral safety circuit. Samples of the new packs get delivered within a period of two weeks and after they were tried and found to be fit to use, Retrieva adopted them for all their products. The advantage of the new custom battery pack is that it is not as expensive as the original and each pack has a flying connector or lead to match that of the original.