Susurro was a spin-out from CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), specialised in Air-Coupled Ultrasonic Sensing (ACUS), that was created during the The Collider 2022 program (the technology transfer and accelerator program of Mobile World Capital Barcelona) by a team of scientists (Tech R&D), an experienced hardware entrepreneur (CEO) and myself (COO).

Susurro was born from the goal of becoming the new standard for process inspection systems in electric vehicle (EV) battery cell manufacturing contributing to the clean energy transition by accelerating and reducing the cost of EV battery production.

Technology:

Air-coupled ultrasonic sensing (ACUS) is still an emerging technology that offers many practical benefits over directly-coupled or fluid-coupled ultrasonic sensing. Large-scale deployment in many applications has been held back by too low sensitivity, too low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and frequency limitations.

Susurro brought a new ACUS technology to the market that offered a step-change in sensitivity, sound-to-noise ratio and bandwidth, opening unlimited possibilities in Non-Destructive Testing, inline inspection, serial testing and 100% material characterisation.

Problem:

Despite the accelerated growth in electric vehicle battery manufacturing there has been a massive gap in battery inspection and intelligence during battery production, especially in cell finishing, when battery cells have been fully assembled and are impervious to visual inspection.

Cell reliability is still one of the most pressing issues in battery manufacturing, with more than $3B recalls from the market in 2021 due to quality and safety issues.

Solution:

We demonstrated that UT enabled in-line battery cell inspection can deliver major value to battery production by enhancing quality control and predictive capabilities of lifetime performance, and reducing costs by preventing destructive testing and disposal of such batteries.

Susurro’s technology helped battery cell manufacturers:
-Accelerate the ramp-up of safe and reliable cell production
-Improve end-product reliability and reduce waste
-Improve cell development time and cost

We also explored how Susurro’s technology could help EV manufacturers and other players in the 2nd life EV battery market reduce the cost of inspection by simplifying inspection system designs and increasing inspection speed capabilities

Challenges & outcome:

When we had successfully graduated from the program and were gaining pilot traction with key industry players (Mitsubishi Electric, Zeta Energy, Liminal and others), the venture fell apart when a Tech Transfer Agreement could not be negotiated with the institution that owned the sensor patents (Spain’s National Research Institute) despite the previously established agreements between them and The Collider.