Talk:Altairnano

Restarted
I've restarted the page in hope of including non-copyright violation information. Please don't insert block quotes from the company website, or marketing hoopla from a nanosafe brochure. Ryddragyn 04:17, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

I added the general battery technology information, but in my own words and not directly quoting altair. I also added the distinct disadvantages to the technology as well, which isn't directly stated by the company materials - you have to dig for it in other sources.Ryddragyn 15:41, 17 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I am a Wiki Newbie, but I do work in the field of battery technology - specifically, battery management for Li-Ion battery packs. The article appears to be completely accurate to the best of my knowledge based on reports from people who have worked with the batteries and the expected behaviour of the technology and chemistry used.

If they were not so eye wateringly expensive, they would be adopted by Automotive, Industrial Machines, Starter batteries and so on, quite simply because of their fast charging capability, power density and humungus durability (cycles to failure). I will follow their story with interest. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.242.190.112 (talk) 19:24, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Is battery the main product of Altairnano? --Cyferz 02:44, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
 * AFAIK no, at least their website talks about other products for Life Science and materials market. Read here --81.210.150.73 (talk) 09:14, 20 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Is the Nanosafe the main product...? I'd have to say yes.  According to the Q4 Conference Call on March 11th, 09  the Performance Materials division and the Life Sciences division won't be bringing much, or anything, in the way of products to market for a few years yet.  Nirogard (talk) 23:09, 19 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I recieved the following from Altiar's public relations company, McCloud Communications, this mornig: "ALTI is not focusing on performance materials or life sciences - not enough staff or fundinf to do it well. Shelved for now."  The primary Life Science project, Renazorb is currently undergoing testing and won't hit the market for years yet. The other Life Science materials currently have no Pharma partnerships.  All of the 'Performance Materials' partners, Genesis Air, Sultzer Metco, PPG Aerospace, and Boeing appear, ironically, to be material underachievers. Nirogard (talk) 14:45, 21 March 2009 (UTC)


 * An interesting development just now: In pressing company sources further on whether Genesis Air, Sultzer Metco et al, will still be supplied I recieved a one word answer: "Gone!" Now I'm going to have to erase and modify all of my hard work yesterday writing about Performance Materials.  I'm guessing that the nanomaterial compound for the wings of Boeings stealth fighters will remain in production but don't think that the company will either confirm, or deny, this. This may be the reason for the company's upcoming revamp of their website. Nirogard (talk) 19:06, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Could put NASDAQ:ABAT in as another possible competitor. Also, this page should be renamed to reflect the real title of the company: Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. Please comment. ImpIn | (t - c) 03:10, 21 June 2008 (UTC)


 * ABAT is also a potential partner as they continue to mention, in their SEC filings, for a couple of years now, that they're trying to incorporate the Altair anode into their product line. The field is changing rapidly and is rather nebulous inasmuch as there are possible competitors out there, like Eestor, which could be vapourware.
 * I agree that the Altair Nanotechnologies page should be renamed to accurately state the true name of the company and not a contraction.

Nirogard (talk) 23:09, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
 * See the Argonne National Labs document concerning ABAT that I just referenced in the Aditional Information article section.Nirogard (talk) 06:44, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm a total Wiki Newbie so please forgive my learning curve. I've made many changes today, for example, without leaving notes - something I'll earnestly try not to overlook in the future. If you see an unexplained change please don't hesitate to ask me about it as I'm probably the one responsible. I probably know more about this company than most people. In the interest of full disclosure: I've invested in Altairnano and have researched it intently. I've tried earnestly, however, to leave any investor bias out of my Wiki contributions.

Note: According to the company’s latest conference call  (the audio version) the cost of the batteries has been reduced to $1/whr from $2/whr with another halving expected in the next 18 to 24 months. While the $2/whr cost has been widely reported today’s cost is actually less. The CEO also states in this conference call that he's not keen on sharing the true price of the battery with the competition at this time. Nirogard (talk) 23:09, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Capacity loss
Do these batteries still have a certain decrease in capacity over time like regular Li-ion batteries do? Towel401 (talk) 16:44, 21 September 2008 (UTC)


 * With regards to the question of capacity loss over time, if you mean loss of energy while on the shelf, the loss is uncommonly small - At 25 degrees Celsius, beginning at 80% state of charge (SOC), there will be approximately 3 percent discharge of the actual unit per year. That’s not lost capacity but rather just a 3 percent loss of energy which can be recharged back up to 100%.  This is a desirable quality particularly for electric grid and military customers.


 * If you mean capacity loss with use I believe that the standard measurement for batteries is how many cycles it takes to drop to 80% of original capacity. I believe, for the NanoSafe, this is 15,000-25,000 cycles, far more than most. The 1 Megawatt sized battery currently being tested for AES on the PJM ISO will likely provide proof of longevity performance in the real world, or lack thereof. Altair researchers anticipate that the various cell chemistries will last about 25 years each depending on use and possible extreme temperature climate conditions. Nirogard (talk) 23:09, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

A Reference Reference
I've just contributed a segement for the Company's LIfe Sciences division. I'm told that Altair's web site will be changed next month (April 09) so references linked, today, to pages other than the company's main page, or their press releases, may not be there in the near future. Nirogard (talk) 20:24, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

On ISE Corporation
Someone had previosly inserted Altair's partnership with ISE Corporation. I believe that this partnership, while not yet extinct, is quite tenuous. The most recent news on the subject from Altair came from the Q3 08 Conference Call http://systemagicmotives.com/Altairnative%20Site/Audio%20File%20Transcripts/Q3%202008%20Conference%20Call.htm wherein CEO Terry Copeland stated "...I’ll tell you that ISE has changed their leadership structure some and they are reevaluating how they want to address the whole marketplace. We’re a part of that reevaluation." On the optimistic side ISE still has a reference to Altair in their presentation materials but, like many others these days, ISE is a relatively small company struggling for cash flow. There's no recent word from ISE, or Altair, to indicate that anything is progressing between them. With stimulous funds it's still possible that something could happen but there's no sign that anything is currently underway. Nirogard (talk) 14:36, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Lithium Mobile Power Reference
The second reference that I've added to the data on Altair's latest cell technology was presented by Jeff Yambrick, Altair's Business Development Manager, at the Lithium Mobile Power conference late last year (2008). The link is intended to specifically be to the "Lithium Mobile Power 2008", one of three options presented on that webpage by the Knowledge Foundation. It's either a paid service or a "free trial membership" if the user wants to sign up for email bombardment. I don't know if this is a viable link for Wiki but it's the original source of the information. I'll await Wiki administrator judgement on this matter. Nirogard (talk) 14:39, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Factoids
While the livliest interest of both readers and on-line authors is in the automotive arena the truth is that Altair's greatest potential, and current most dynamic growth, lies in its stationary power (electric grid ancillary services) and military applications. Also, in the transportation arena busses are far more viable than cars. The numbers, for a variety of reasons, are very good for busses.

Altiar initially has had 4 bus companies with interest. ISE is mentioned above. Proterra is a small start-up company with just one Altair prototype which hopes to have orders later this year. DesignLine opted for another supplier. E-bus, as a partner, has never been announced but their name and products showed up in an Altair presentation last year.

Similarly, The Crusher, a military vehicle, showed up as a graphic in the same presentation but the battery company of record for this vehicle is Saft/Johnson Controls.

Also, there's minor reference on-line that Volvo should be completing its study, right around now, of an Altairnano battery pack. No word yet as to the results. Nirogard (talk) 15:03, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Additional Information
The two items 1) Berube's electric dragster and 2) The Moller Skycar Autovolantor seem incongruous with the "Battery Technology" title and so I've started a new "Additional Information" category. I don't know if there's a more 'encyclopedic' sounding title. Perhaps someone more experienced with Wiki will change it if there is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nirogard (talk • contribs) 07:39, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Advertising & Major Contributor Conflict
Well, there's no doubt that this major contributor is me. I've written over 90% of the content here. I stated, when I first arrived, that I'm an investor in the company but would endeavour to keep it unbiased. Apparently I've failed. I've also written a lot of (totally unrelated) ads in my time and it appears that I may not be able to keep the language out of my writing despite my best efforts. As soon as the "Written Like an Advertisement" notice popped up I did my best to remove any writing that could be interpretted as enthusiastic. I even made a few things sound negative instead of neutral. I removed repeated words like "greater" but could do no better than replace them with "increased" or "more" because, the truth is, this new battery tech has several attributes which are something considerably beyond the the capacities of traditional battery technology.

Another mistake that I made was to link Altairnano quite extensively throughout Wiki in all the electric transportation and grid services articles that I could find. I wanted to get it all done at once rather than retrace my steps later for any possible articles that I may have overlooked. This probably set off alarm bells as well.

Since the first warning popped up I've tried to 'neutralize', even 'negativize' the article but apparenly it's beyond my knowledge/ability on how to correct. I know an awful lot about this company. There's only one other person, that I know of, not affiliated with Altair, who's done more research than me on Altairnano and he's not a Wiki person. I have a lot to offer on the subject (In fact it appears that Wiki's quite anoemic throughout in the Energy Storage arena - a burgeoning field rendered even more dynamic by the current national Stimulous Plan). I've tried to offer what I could and spent several days working on the article. I enjoyed it. I might have moved on to contribute to the other rising cutting-edge storage technologies but... ...the persistent warnings are very disillusioning. I just hope that all my hard work won't be lost. As I reread the article now I can only see facts without anything resembling advertising. I'll leave it to you, however, the more experienced, to affect the neccessary changes. Please don't let all my hard work be wasted. I don't like feeling like a shill- that role was never my intention. I'm outa here for now but will, no doubt, check back in to see what has happened sometime down the road. Sorry for the inconvenience. Nirogard (talk) 22:21, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Note: At least some (if not all) of my reference links have gone screwy. When clicking on them the results are different than the links actually coded into the text. They've crossed wires somehow. Nirogard (talk) 05:43, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Note 2: The company's most significant shortcomings are now covered as well as it's assets. These are 1) Continued losses from operations, 2) Dependency on the success of third party products, 3) Intense competition. The other well-known shortcoming, the cost of the tech, has been cut in half (at least for grid applications) and is currently being reduced still further.Nirogard (talk) 16:28, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Altairnano's New Website
Altairnano posted their new website today (April 4, 09). As anticipated the Life Sciences links that I recently posted, to fill the alternative REFERENCE REQUIRED messages, have disappeared. No other reference is likely to be found. Also, this week, the VP of the Life Sciences and Performance Materials departments left the company. The new website now only features Altairnano's Power products. The other 2 departments appear to be gone. In actuality their Renazorb product remains in testing but that's an 8-12 year research effort with the primary responsibility residing with Spectrum Pharamceuticals. They're actively seeking a partner for their Renalin product, to replace Ely Lilly, but all the other life science products have effectively been shelved. Consequently I'm removing most of the Life Science information that I've contributed. A reference for the Renalin product can be found among those links already listed here: http://www.smallcapinvestor.com/stockresearch/spotlight/2007-12-11-altair_nanotechnologies_inc_charging_toward_a_future_of_small_particles Nirogard (talk) 03:15, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

With regards to their now-defunct Materials department Altairnano will likely revive the Alsher Titania, Shewin Williams joint venture when the ecconomy improves. They're also likely continuing to supply a couple of confidential military projects. Nirogard (talk) 03:23, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

merge merg merge
Can be merged with this article. And this article renamed to Altair Nanotechnologies Inc.? Wikifan Be nice 08:54, 24 April 2012 (UTC)

History
There is no history of the company here. It would help set a more objective tone for the article. Altairnano used to focus more on medicine, according to their own website, a few years ago. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sneakylemur (talk • contribs) 19:46, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

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