Axion Power International Inc. announced that it has completed, and begun operating, its new improved continuous roll carbon sheeting line. The carbon sheet is a critical component of Axion's proprietary negative electrode and, to date, it has been manufactured by hand utilizing several identical stations to provide enough carbon sheet to satisfy existing PbC(R) battery production needs. However, manual carbon sheeting production has never been viewed as the long-term solution necessary to meet Axion's projected PbC product sales growth, its cost improvement targets or its quality control specifications.

Rather, an automated production system was the long established goal and this second generation continuous-roll carbon sheeting production line, when coupled with Axion's robotic negative electrode production line, completely automates the manufacturing process. It becomes scalable, with the capability of being replicated at the Company's New Castle facility or at any other facility throughout the world.