COMMENTARY — Thinking small with silver

The increasing demand for a high-performance power source, such as that provided by silver oxide-zinc batteries, accounts for the

more-than-200,000-oz. increase in the use of silver in the U.S. battery market two years ago.

According to the 1994 World Silver Survey, there has been a steady increase in silver consumption for this market, amounting to a 25% increase during the past five years.

The major market for the silver oxide technology is the miniature battery market, which is estimated to comprise more than 830 million units yearly worldwide. Of these, about 500 million units are sold with original equipment, the remainder being replacements.

There is a trend towards smaller and still smaller, hand-held, electronic products — a trend which is inducing more and more manufacturers to use button-sized batteries. Silver oxide batteries will play a leading role in this emerging market because other types of cells must be larger in order to deliver an equivalent amount of power.

In the hearing-aid market, silver oxide miniature batteries are increasingly displacing the long-used mercury batteries. Regulations banning the use of mercury, because of disposal problems, are increasing. Although newer zinc-oxygen cathode air batteries are also entering the market, the more powerful silver oxide batteries will continue to dominate.

Underwater, unmanned vehicles represent a new, rapidly emerging market for the rechargeable silver oxide battery. Private industry and the military are significantly expanding the scale of deep-sea-bed mining exploration and research. As deep-sea mining expands, so will the market for silver oxide. Aerospace applications continue to be an important market for silver oxide batteries, too. General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas both use these batteries to operate equipment in their launch vehicles and orbiting satellites.

On board the space shuttle, the lighter-weight, higher-power silver oxide batteries run the instrumentation, open and close the huge bay doors, and provide power for experiments. Astronauts use silver oxide batteries in their spacesuits for space-walk life support systems and power tools, as these provide the longest possible sustained power with the lightest weight. — From “The Silver Institute Letter.”