MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. received a patent on its lithium-ion battery technology, the result of many years of development by the company’s engineers, representing a multi-million dollar investment by Milwaukee, for cordless power tools.
The company’s patented lithium-ion technology represents the new generation of cordless hand-held power tools powered by battery packs capable of producing an average discharge current greater than or equal to approximately 20 amps. This patent protects the Milwaukee brand’s newly introduced M12 and M18 lithium-ion product lines as well as the industry’s first V28 and V18 lithium-ion product lines.
“This patent, along with other patents already issued to Milwaukee in the lithium-ion field provide broad, valuable rights to Milwaukee in the use of lithium-ion batteries in power tools,” said Steven Richman, president of Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. “The granting of this milestone patent confirms the long-stated position of Milwaukee as having revolutionized the power tool industry as the leader in lithium-ion technology for power tools.”
At the outset of the company’s ground-breaking work in lithium-ion technology, Milwaukee filed numerous U.S. and international patent applications on many of its inventions in this field. This new patent follows upon a series of patents awarded to the company in lithium-ion technology since 2005, when the company went first to market with its V28 lithium-ion power tools.
Additional patents directed to various aspects of its lithium-ion technology, including a power tool battery pack having battery cells with a combined nominal voltage of approximately 28-volts, prevention of brown-outs, a multi-chemistry battery charger and a multi-voltage lithium-ion battery charger, have been granted by the U.S. Patent Office, as well as Patent Offices of other countries. A number of other patent applications are in the pipeline.