Battery Detection Solutions offers an automated X‑ray inspection system that mounts on recycling conveyor lines, using AI to detect lithium‑ion batteries as small as a quarter‑coin and a robotic picker to extract them in real time. The platform integrates with existing PLC controls, provides a live monitoring dashboard, and is sold as a turnkey unit with optional service and analytics subscriptions.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Lithium‑ion batteries inadvertently enter municipal solid‑waste and recycling streams, creating a latent fire risk that can ignite material handling equipment and cause costly shutdowns. Existing sorting methods lack the resolution and speed to reliably identify batteries that are as small as a quarter‑coin amid dense, heterogeneous feedstock.
Solution
Battery Detection Solutions (BDS) delivers a fully automated, high‑resolution X‑ray inspection platform that mounts directly onto a plant’s conveyor line. The system scans up to 40 inches of bulk material in real time and leverages convolutional‑neural‑network (CNN) models to detect and classify lithium‑ion cells of any orientation. When a battery is identified, a robotic extraction module isolates and removes the item before it reaches downstream equipment. BDS offers three modular deployment options—in‑feed, pre‑bailing, and post‑truck‑unloading—allowing facilities to choose the point of greatest fire‑mitigation impact. The solution integrates with existing PLC controls and provides a secure dashboard for operational monitoring and compliance reporting. All hardware and software are delivered as a turnkey package with optional service agreements for ongoing calibration and support.
Target Audience
Primary customers are material recovery facilities and recycling plants that process mixed waste streams, particularly those handling paper, cardboard, and metal where battery contamination poses a fire hazard. The solution also serves third‑party equipment integrators seeking to add safety modules to existing material handling lines.
Features
- High‑resolution X‑ray sensor capable of penetrating up to 40 inches of mixed recycling material
- Real‑time AI inference engine (CNN) that classifies lithium‑ion batteries as small as a quarter‑coin with >95 % accuracy
- Automated robotic picker that extracts detected batteries without manual intervention
- Modular mounting kits that retrofit onto existing conveyor belts, minimizing installation downtime
- PLC‑compatible API for seamless integration with plant control systems and data historians
- Centralized web dashboard with live alerts, removal logs, and safety compliance analytics