Southampton spin-out Ilika has successfully completely its factory acceptance test.

Ilika, a material sciences spin-out of Southampton University, has successfully completed its factory acceptance test (Fat). The completion is in line with the company’s timeline as announced in July 2014.

The news follows July 2013’s industrial partnership with Southampton University to design, build and operate a solid-state battery scale-up factory. As part of that partnership, the company was awarded a £3.3m ($5.4m) grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. 

The Fat was conducted in Finland, and proved the viability and safe functioning of all equipment. The equipment will now be shipped to the UK where it will be integrated into a laboratory at Southampton University. The university has spent £750,000 ($1.23m) to expand existing infrastructure to house the new facility.

The company and university expect the facility to be set up in the fourth quarter in 2014, with pre-production quantities of the batteries to be shipped to interested parties in 2015 before full commercialisation.

Ilika has been floating on Aim since May 2010 with a current market cap of £55.36m ($90.8m). The technology is based on research by Brian Hayden, professor of physical chemistry at Southampton. He now serves as chief scientific officer.

Graeme Purdy, chief executive at Ilika, said: “This successful Fat represents a significant milestone in the commercialisation of our solid-state battery technology. The pilot line will not only enable Ilika to make its unique stacked solid-state batteries in sufficient quantities for commercial validation, but it will also deliver valuable data for the economic modelling of its proprietary manufacturing process.”