World-class innovation.
In the heart of London.
Our innovation factories
At Breathe, we maintain two world-class laboratories in the heart of London, running 24/7/365 to empower our internal teams and our customers' teams with the rich data they need to succeed. These are our innovation factories.
We’ve invested heavily in creating industrialised environments that breed quality and deliver on-time, because we understand that production timelines wait for nobody. We’ve made substantial financial investments, enabling our teams and yours to trust in data and to access on-tap professionalism, no matter the test scale.
Our laboratories have accrued a long history of successful output. We use every drop of that experience to continuously refine our processes and infrastructure so that you can rely on our laboratories, just like we do.
99.82
percentage uptime in 2024
2M+
hours of battery data collected, and counting
13,500
square feet
690+
£5m
direct investment in equipment & facilities
battery cycler channels
Versatility at scale
Our versatile infrastructure is designed to handle everything from curved cell geometries to massive cells containing experimental materials. Sub-cell, small-cell, large cell, or off-the-scale; we’re ready for it.
Our team and facilities are versed in processing all major cell formats - coin, cylindrical, pouch and prismatic - in a range of sizes from single layer cells described in low mAh to 200+ Ah cells, all the while maintaining test accuracy and precision. With over 296 parameterisation channels, 64 high-voltage pack channels and 336 high-current channels - with 74% of all channels real-time capable - we’re equipped to handle the most diverse design of experiments.
Vertical integration
We’ve designed for a high level of vertical integration under one roof to maintain an iron grip on quality while enabling our team to move at speed.
Our test fixture design, using the latest computer aided engineering software, is located metres from assembly stations and adjacent to all battery cyclers. With extreme attention to detail and workflow optimisation, we deliver on our dual goals of minimum turnaround times and creating cell test fixture environments that accurately represent our customers' systems across cooling, compression, sensing and more.
Glovebox environments provide an inert atmosphere for cell construction and teardown, enabling safe disassembly and post-mortem analysis, with on-site optical imaging providing additional data.
Through test campaigns, our team and facilities ensure quality with rich, complete datasets, because we understand that uncertainty in test and measurement is the enemy of high-confidence engineering of optimal battery systems. We conduct comprehensive measurement throughout test campaigns, co-agreed through formal test planning, including; multi-point temperature measurements, cell thickness and swelling, pressure and other bespoke measurements, including invasive methods.
Cell-to-system scaling
Inefficiency in the cell-to-system scale-up process is a drag on the industry’s ambitions of developing optimal battery systems that drive high-margin, high-impact end user outcomes. We understand that, in your battery system development, maintaining cell performance all the way to system level enables you reaching start-of-production without erosion of your promise to product owners and to end-users.
To support that objective, our advanced, programmable and computer controlled, in-the-loop cooling systems deliver representative cooling conditions. Specification, design and integration of custom control cabinets using programmable logic controllers delivers high-fidelity control through complex test cases.
Across the full spectrum of battery test and validation, our laboratories and team deliver you peace of mind through data representative of product usage.
History of development
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Dr Yan Zhao, Dr Max Naylor Marlow and Professor Greg Offer led the specification, procurement and installation of the first battery cyclers and laboratory equipment at Imperial College London. Displacing an internal combustion engine dyno to operate out of a decommissioned engine test cell, the installation scaled to approximately 300 channels in this time and was symbolic of shifting global attitudes to electrification.
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On Breathe’s incorporation, experience of laboratory commissioning is transferred with Dr Yan Zhao as Chief Technology Officer and Professor Greg Offer as Chief Scientist. With incubation at Imperial College London, Breathe’s first laboratory is constructed inside “Room 101” - located in the basement of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London’s South Kensington campus.
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As the global COVID-19 pandemic takes hold, and the United Kingdom exits the European Union, battery cyclers continue to arrive throughout the year from North America, Europe and China. Commissioning takes place in Room 101 and prototype infrastructure for running real time battery algorithms at scale is developed.
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Breathe expands into a 7,500 square foot laboratory in east London, carrying-out significant infrastructure and site upgrades to lay the foundation for the safe, automated testing of batteries at scales from sub-cell level to high-power automotive module validation.
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Dr Max Naylor Marlow joins Breathe full-time as Head of Testing. Dr Marlow takes responsibility for facility expansion and the first tranche of expansion completes in June of this year. Approximately 160 battery cycler channels are available.
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The second tranche of expansion starts with new equipment installations in wet lab facilities for parameterisation, and large scale cyclers for validation, responding to growing demand for adaptive charging.
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Breathe secures an additional 6,000 square feet of laboratory capacity and new capabilities, co-located on the same site as our first laboratory in east London, to deliver on customer demand for an expanded product portfolio of battery simulation products.
Intelligent design of experiments
Our promise is enabling you to do more with the power you have.
We harness innovation in design of experiments to deliver more insights with fewer resources. The result is faster turnaround of higher quality data supporting the development of better products, for our internal teams, and for you.
Building trust, not only datasets
Our high-quality UK-based facilities are designed to support open, transparent collaboration. You and your colleagues are welcome to visit us on-site, where our office is co-located with our battery laboratories — enabling you to tour the labs and observe your cells undergoing testing and validation first-hand.
Located in a stable, internationally respected jurisdiction, our laboratories offer all of our customers confidence in the security of their intellectual property and sensitive data. We prioritise reliability, legal clarity, and data protection through every step; from contract to final delivery via digital infrastructure.
Welcome to our laboratories
We regularly welcome visitors from around the world on-site in east London. Located less than 5 km from London City Airport with simple transport links, you can reach our laboratories by air, road and rail. Should you find that an in-person discussion helps you achieve your battery systems goals, you don’t have to think twice.
Our on-site laboratory team of engineers and electrochemists, supported by a team of data and validation engineers working partially on-site, provide you access to a wealth of expertise throughout your battery validation and data collection campaigns. We invest in the fixed costs for you and for ourselves, making it available to you so that you can access high-quality data through variable costs.
We understand that batteries are complex, and we live our cultural value of making every effort to make the complex simple. That extends to languages and accessibility, too. Through our multi-lingual team, you can engage with us in English, German, Chinese, Italian & more.
A continuous journey in quality
Our ISO-certified laboratory environments provide you the peace of mind of knowing you’ll get value for money; high-quality results on-time with low, managed risk.
We’re certified according to ISO 9001 (quality management) and to ISO 27001 (data security) standards. From goods-receipt to data delivery, quality percolates throughout our laboratories as much as our culture of safety.
Traceability supports quality through our adherence to standards. All of our battery cyclers, and other relevant measurement equipment, are periodically calibrated together with world-class suppliers. Traceable calibration logs provide our internal teams and our customers extra confidence in data quality.
A penchant for detail
Our attention to detail extends to more than measurement, calibration and traceability.
Today, much of our infrastructure is resilient to power interruptions through connection to uninterruptible power supplies. Our always-on facilities are tightly controlled, with a balanced blend of automation and mature processes strictly followed by qualified technicians.
We’ve fostered a no-blame culture and a penchant for detail to provide a sustainable working environment delivering quality outcomes for our internal teams, as well as for every one of our customers around the world.
Cost innovation through automation
Affordability matters.
Delivering the highest-quality data, reliably at scale, is an outcome that’s only possible with innovation in cost structures. Accordingly, we’ve invested in technology development to create hardware and software systems that drive operational efficiency through every stage, from test conception to drawing insights from data.
Our 4th generation of our real-time hardware platform, Rocketsheep, provides a highly automated and tightly quality-controlled workflow for deploying embedded software for validation with a battery in the loop.
Data is automatically ingested through robust pipelines and processed using an industry-leading data processing platform, extracting metrics and insights, enabling our engineers and our customers to realise extraordinary efficiency.
Clean, green, audited machine
Our team are experienced in facilitating supplier quality audits. We do so under the natural light of our translucent laboratory ceiling, surrounded by the sound of every battery cycler running on 100% renewable energy. Our responsible laboratory practices support your supply chain sustainability objectives. We make procurement easy, because we know that what’s good for the planet is good for business, too.