LG's six-sided battery to take smart watches into new timezones LG Chem, the chemicals arm of the giant LG conglomerate, has revealed a hexagonal battery for smart watches. The idea here is simple: smart watches are round-ish. Batteries today are usually rectangular. So by building a hexagonal battery (not a symmetrical hexagon, sadly) it becomes possible to pack extra power into a …
"The idea here is simple: smart watches are round-ish. Batteries today are usually rectangular. So by building a hexagonal battery (not a symmetrical hexagon, sadly) it becomes possible to pack extra power into a wearable."
I'm wearing a watch, it's not "smart". Unfortunately I have no idea what shape the battery (cell) is because I've never seen it. The watch is over 10 years old and I've never had to do more than be exposed to sunlight occasionally to charge it. It tells the time pretty well.
Cells in watches today are usually circular in one elevation and being three dimensional might be described as "cylindrical". The vanishingly small market of "smart" watches compared to "working" watches might like to dally with odd shaped cells (in 2D if that is their thing) but that is their business.
The battery in that picture has 8 sides, not 6. A cube has 6 sides, as does any other cuboid structure.
As for "symmetrical hexagon", if one had an application for that, then "round" would be cheaper to manufacture. That is why button batteries are traditionally flat & round, not flat & multi-faceted.
Manufacturing - it's not for dummies.
I'd have guessed that was intentional...
The 'missing' bit of the hexagon, is where you fit in the teensy motherboard that is the watch.
Battery+mobo=layer 1, screen = layer 2
If you made the battery the same size as the watch, then you end up with a 3 layer design.
If you look at current phones or thin laptops, the battery is most of the volume. Main board is usually wrapped around it, as much easier to craft this to fill in the voids, than shaping the battery.
LG has both square and round smart watches; this is probably about making life easier for the designers of future versions of their round watches. If it costs more to make these batteries, they will probably recoup the loss from their customers, from time savings in design, or both. If they are really lucky, the new battery will be adopted by other companies which will bring them some licensing money and drive down manufacturing costs, too.
Watches are round because of the rotating hand display; there's no mechanical or aesthetic need for something worn on the wrist to be circular. A screen based watch has no real need to be round. So - are hexagonal batteries a solution looking for a problem?
"Watches are round because of the rotating hand display"
Digital watches have been available for around 40 years yet the round shape is very persistent. My observation is that round things are less likely to catch in clothing than rectangular ones and this may be part of the reason; the rest is just familiarity. Cars largely went over to transverse engines years ago yet long bonnets persist though they don't do much for aerodynamics or (nowadays) safety.
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