EDI: US$ 3.1 million defense contract
The U.S. federal government has awarded a US$ 3.1-million defense contract to Extrusion Dies Industries, LLC (EDI) for development of a process to produce low-cost electrolyte and cathode films for batteries that power electronic devices used by soldiers, the company announced today.
The contract calls for EDI, a leading builder and international supplier of flat die systems for extrusion and web converting, to develop die and extrusion process technologies that can be scaled up for full production of films for high-energy rechargeable and primary disposable batteries. ‘Achieving these technologies will provide our military with a means to produce lower-cost, high-energy batteries that are safe, long-lasting, and light enough to make use in the battlefield easier and more effective,’ said EDI president and CEO Timothy C. Callahan.
Awarded to EDI not long after Callahan and other EDI top executives succeeded in completing a management buyout of the company, the contract stems from a federal appropriation for U.S. Army battery R&D secured by U.S. Congressman Dave Obey, whose district includes Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, where EDI is headquartered.
EDI designs and manufactures dies for use in the production of extruded film, sheet, and coatings. Under the contract, the company will develop a process and construct a pilot plant for the battery films at its Chippewa Falls facility. The company has operated at this site since it was founded in 1971 and today employs 155 people there.
‘EDI’s highly skilled workforce has achieved a high technical standard,’ said Obey. ‘This contract enables them to build opportunity for themselves while helping to upgrade the power sources used by our men and women in uniform.’
EXTRUSION DIES INDUSTRIES, LLC designs and manufactures dies, coextrusion feedblocks, deckling systems, vacuum boxes, and related equipment and ships more than 500 dies and feedblocks a ear. Its subsidiary Extrusion Dies UK is based in Whetstone, Leicester, England. In the U.S.A. and UK, EDI operates facilities for reworking its own dies and those built by other suppliers, and it has licensed other rework facilities in Germany and Japan. Headquartered in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, U.S.A., EDI sells half of its dies outside the United States. Visit www.extrusiondies.com and www.reworkdies.com. EDI’s E-Mail address is sales@extrusiondies.com .