A Brief Exploration of Round-shaped Lithium Batteries

There are mainly three types of round lithium batteries: steel-shell cylindrical batteries, steel-shell button-type batteries, and soft-pack round batteries. Each battery has its advantages and disadvantages and applications, which we will explore in this article.

Steel shell cylindrical lithium battery

The advantage of this type of lithium-ion battery is that the manufacturing cost is relatively low, the production technology is relatively developed, the industry threshold is low, and the traditional winding process is used. As for its disadvantages,  its energy density is lower than that of soft-pack lithium batteries, and it takes up more product design space, so the applications are mostly for larger battery products.  Cylindrical lithium batteries also have certain restrictions in height.

Many electrical appliances currently use cylindrical lithium batteries, of which 18650 lithium-ion batteries are the most widely used.

Steel shell round button lithium battery

A common disposable round button lithium battery is a lithium manganese battery (code C) that has a nominal voltage of 3V. Another less common type of disposable lithium battery is a lithium-carbon fluoride battery (code B) that also has a nominal voltage of 3V. There is a commonly used secondary round button lithium battery, which is the ML lithium battery (code ML) with a nominal voltage of 3V. The number of these round button lithium batteries correlates to the size of the batteries according to the numbering method of the IEC: the first two digits refer to the diameter (mm), and the last two digits refer to the thickness (mm). For example, the approximate size of the CR2032 is 20mm in diameter and 3.2mm in thickness. Because of its small size, round button batteries have been widely used in various miniature electronic products ranging from 4.8mm to 30mm in diameter and 1.0mm to 7.7mm in thickness.

They are generally used as a backup power supply for various electronic products, such as computer motherboards, electronic watches, electronic dictionaries, electronic scales, remote controls, electric toys, cardiac pacemakers, electronic hearing aids, counters, cameras, and many more. Button batteries are also divided into two categories: chemical batteries and physical batteries. Chemical batteries are the most common. These batteries are made of stainless steel material that serves as the positive electrode. The negative electrode is a stainless steel circular cover. There is a sealing ring between the positive electrode and the negative electrode for insulation. The sealing ring, made of nylon, can prevent electrolyte leakage while providing insulation.

Aluminum plastic film soft pack round lithium battery

The soft-packed round lithium battery belongs to the polymer lithium battery. It adopts a laminated production process and has a higher energy density than the first two types of batteries. At the same time, it is more flexible in terms of thinness and size. At present, Grepow lithium batteries can achieve a thickness of 0.4mm that is widely used in compact wearable devices.

The soft-packed round lithium battery can withstand a certain degree of bending and deformation, which is not possible with the first two batteries. Under the same battery capacity requirements, the soft-packed lithium battery can be made smaller and lighter, allowing it to more efficiently use the valuable space in smart wearable electronic devices. However, the production and manufacturing costs of soft-packed round lithium batteries are higher than the previous two, so the price can be expensive. Through the above comparison, it is impossible to generalize which round lithium battery is the best. This depends on the products that they are intended for.

Who is Grepow?

Grepow was established in 1998, and it focuses on battery manufacturing technology, safe and stable power sources, strong endurance, long-lasting power, high charging conversion rate, long service life, and production qualifications. The following is a partial round lithium polymer battery model list of GREPOW:

If you are interested in our products, please don't hesitate to contact us at any time!
Email: info@grepow.com
Grepow Website: https://www.grepow.com/