Battery Engineering was among the first in the field of lithium ion battery development -- extremely durable, long-lasting batteries capable of withstanding a wide range of temperatures, from minus-50 degrees Celsius to more than 200 degrees Celsius - and an early developer on rechargeable verisons. Funded by the Navy in the first year of SBIR's government wide operations, the company's batteries mostly used by industrial customers to supply power for oil drilling and geophysical exploration equipment and medical devices but also been used on NASA space shuttle missions. In 1990 the firm was acquired by Hitachi-Maxell Ltd and then, in 2000 was acquired from Hitachi by earlier involved SBIR awardee Wilson Greatbatch itself a major SBIR achiever having patented the heart implantable Pacemaker in 1962.
