I’m a Senior Materials Engineer, I focus on linking the properties of our materials with the way they process in dry coating applications and provide feedback to other teams on the performance of these materials. As well as this analysis work, I benchmark our input materials, using conventional dry coating processes, to further understand how these materials behave. This helps us to probe the effect of material choice and how it could influence both the material processing and the cell performance.
Team Spotlight
Team Spotlight: James Davies
What is your current role and what does it involve?
What does a typical day at Anaphite look like for you?
Designing experiments to understand more about our input materials, products, processes and customer needs to develop our technological understanding. Supporting other team members in their own and experimental design and hypothesising expected outcomes. Learning, developing and doing material analysis then feeding back the information to the team of interest. Reading scientific literature and engaging in technical discussions to break down problems and find new solutions.
What’s been your career route to get here? Have you always wanted to work in batteries?
I got quite lucky! I did a Masters degree in chemistry from Bristol which I fell into, it was a subject I had excelled in but not something I had considered beyond anything further than just going to university. I wasn’t sure if I was cut-out for a scientific career. But in 2021 when a friend, who lived next door to our founder Sam Burrow, mentioned that Anaphite were hiring I jumped at the chance. The idea of contributing to greener future was always appealing to me and Anaphite seemed like a great opportunity to get involved! It has been hugely fulfilling.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve worked on at Anaphite?
Probably the early days developing our dry coating capabilities. I was applying our old product into a new application, so this was a great challenge with a big learning opportunity.
It encompassed: the selection of materials, how to process these materials, what machines are suited for these processes, what material analysis can be performed to understand these materials and then what are the challenges faced.
We were then able to develop products and processes to address these challenges.
What excites you about dry coating and Anaphite’s technology?
Dry coating is still a relatively new challenge. You could consider us early movers; so we have the potential to make the breakthroughs and understand the technology better than or before everyone else, which I find really motivating.
And finally, what’s your favourite battery powered object and why?
A portable speaker – at the beach, the park, the shower. Sorted.