Hammond Group is pleased to announce a new director to lead their industry recognized E=(LAB)2. Enqin Gao has been named Research and Development Director. He will oversee daily operations and research at the lab in Hammond, Indiana, USA.
With over three decades of management and R&D experience in the lead acid battery industry, Enqin Gao brings a wealth of knowledge to Hammond’s efforts to further develop Long Duration Energy Storage solutions. He has worked on the manufacturing side of the industry with both Trojan Battery and Camel Group, where he gained valuable experience in manufacturing and development. Gao’s titles over the years have included Chief Engineer, Product Specialist, Research Chemist, Supervisor, R&D Engineer, and Process Engineer.
Hammond President and CEO Terry Murphy is delighted that Gao will play a leading role in the company’s R&D efforts. “Lead acid batteries are central to the growing demand for energy storage as the world transitions away from fossil fuels, but we have to continue innovating,” said Murphy. “Enqin is a key addition to our R&D team as we help drive further innovations for the industry.”
Gao earned a MS in Physical Chemistry from Peking University and a BS in Chemistry from Wuhan University. He also studied Materials Science and Engineering as a PhD student at Iowa State University. “His education and deep industry experience makes Enqin uniquely qualified to lead the R&D lab. His practical knowledge will provide insights and the results our customers rely on Hammond for in product development,” said Murphy.
“Hammond’s technical assistance programs allow customers to treat our lab as an extension of their own. Using our state-of-the-art instruments, many of which our customers don’t have in their own labs, our engineers can perform TGA/DSC analysis, BET analysis, SEM and more on material evaluation and cell and battery tests,” said Gao. “Our team is composed of experts from material science, battery research, design, manufacturing and testing with total industry experience over 200 years. We do both fundamental and applied research. We also work closely with battery companies around the world in promoting lead acid battery technology.”
Hammond has successfully developed more than 120 battery additives, which have helped customers produce higher performing, more sustainable products. The company is responsible for a number of industry innovations including GravityGuard™, Advanced Expanders, and the recently developed Treated SureCure™ among others.
“I’m very proud of what Hammond has achieved. As an R&D team, we have developed a new generation of negative and positive additives and trained our customers to use the new technology we developed. This has helped them manufacture in a more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly way,” Gao said. “For example, our new Treated SureCure™ additives are helping our customers reduce the curing temperature and formation time for their products, decrease energy consumption, lower costs, and improve battery performance.”
“When customers are in the process of developing a new product, we often get involved from the very beginning, working together to develop a product that satisfies the customer’s most difficult and pressing demands,” said Gao. “If they need help solving production problems, our customers can rely on Hammond’s years of industry expertise to help them troubleshoot the process.”
