R & D Summary

Prompt

Summarize the following daily R&D technical report for the engineering leadership team. Use 5 bullet points or fewer. Include every quantitative result, any decision needed, and next steps. Do not add any information that is not in the report: DAILY TECHNICAL REPORT: Solid-State Cell Program, Thermal Abuse Testing, Lab 3 Date: November 13, 2026. Author: Dr. Priya Raman, Test Lead. Status: preliminary data, not yet peer reviewed. Scope: We ran nail-penetration tests on 12 Gen-4B pouch cells at 25°C ambient. Pass criteria are no fire, no explosion, and no electrolyte venting. Results: 10 of 12 cells passed. Peak surface temperature among passing cells was 87.4°C, against a 120°C safety limit. Cells 7 and 11 vented electrolyte within 40 seconds of penetration; neither progressed to fire or thermal runaway. Both vented cells used separator material from lot SP-2291. The other 10 cells used lot SP-2304. Cycle life (parallel test): Cells from the same build retained 94.1% of capacity after 500 cycles at 1C, above the 92% program target. Internal resistance rose 11%, inside the 15% budget. Equipment issue: The chamber 2 thermocouple read 3.2°C high during runs 7 through 9. We corrected those readings using the reference probe. Recalibration is scheduled for November 17. Decision needed: I recommend quarantining separator lot SP-2291 until the supplier completes a root-cause analysis. Program management must approve by November 16. Next steps: Repeat nail-penetration on 6 additional cells from lot SP-2304 on November 18. Today's testing used $14,200 of the $60,000 Q4 test budget.