armor is unveiling a new activity: press kit

Armor Group Press Relations Mélanie Alexandre (Giotto)

Tel. + 33 (0)1 48 74 18 62 -‐ Mob. + 33 (0)6 70 54 44 90 -‐ m.alexandre@giotto-‐cr.com

Printer cartridges, Thermal Transfer Armor is unveiling a new activity:

Current collector films for batteries

PRESS KIT

En’ Safe Press Release

Armor Group Press Relations Mélanie Alexandre (Giotto) -‐ 01 48 74 18 62 -‐ 06 70 54 44 90 -‐ m.alexandre@giotto-‐cr.com

Press release

Printer cartridges, Thermal Transfer, Armor is unveiling a new activity: current collector films for batteries

Today, Armor markets two types of products: the thin Thermal Transfer film meant for printing on packaging and labels, as well as remanufactured ink jet and laser cartridges. Along with the first sales of the En' SafeTM current collectors, Armor has officially given the green light to this new activity focusing on energy storage. This responds to the growing need of greater energy independence by users in a more and more mobile world; a concrete solution for improving the safety and performance of batteries, thus augmenting smartphone, laptop or electric vehicles and tramway capacities. “En’ SafeTM signals a historical innovation for Armor. Today, we are launching a new activity which responds to the challenges surrounding energy transition. With current collector films for batteries, Armor now possesses three pillars of development and is expecting commercialisation for versatile and thin organic photovoltaic films to begin in 2016”, explains Hubert de Boisredon, CEO of Armor Group. The En’ Safe TM current collector, a high-‐tech product, a strategic battery component Expectations of battery manufacturers and their clients were very high. Most of us are familiar with our laptop battery lasting half as long after two years, our mobile phone battery overheating or perhaps electric vehicles being restricted to a 100km range. En’ SafeTM provides manufacturers with a concrete solution: a completely new current collector which gives added security, greater performance and longer service life for Lithium-‐ion batteries and Ultracapacitors. It is the know-‐how of Armor in the high-‐precision coating of thin layers upon ultra-‐thin substrates that has enabled us to develop this innovative solution which is the first of its kind on the market. En’ SafeTM is made of ultra-‐thin aluminium or copper foils coated with a special high-‐tech film designed to protect from chemical attacks, reduce electrical internal resistance and improve adherence. A new activity, a driver of growth for Armor Group Armor targets two global markets which are experiencing significant growth and in serious need of solutions: Lithium-‐ion battery components (20% annual growth) and Ultracapacitors (30% annual growth). Lithium-‐ion batteries, given their heightened energy density, have given way to new applications (laptops, electric vehicles, etc.). Ultracapacitors, for example, allow for braking energy to be regenerated instead of it being lost. It is worth noting one of the features of this market: every battery manufacturer develops its own electrochemistry and manufacturing process. Armor subscribes to this approach and, unlike its competitors, adapts its product to the needs of each client: an En’ SafeTM current collector specific to each and every client, designed for large-‐scale manufacturing. Armor started developing this new offer in 2009 with primary client feedback being



extremely positive; thus, the decision to invest in a brand new dedicated production plant was made in 2013. All in all, Armor has invested 15M€ in this new activity. Looking forward to 2020, around thirty new recruits shall be hired with turnover aimed at 30M€. Armor remains faithful to its commitment towards energy transition This new activity is part of Armor’s third pillar, Armor Sustainable Energy, dedicated to concrete solutions which favour sustainable development and energy transition. It brings together around thirty individuals, most of whom are engineers, two being Doctors of Chemistry and Processes. In continuing to move forward, Armor is happy to announce its partnership with IMN (the Jean Rouxel Institute of Materials, Nantes) to create the joint laboratory DEFIERTM, leading the way in researching the fields of energy storage and organic photovoltaic films. Armor and IMN have already won the ‘LabCom’ call for projects, orchestrated and co-‐funded by the National Research Agency (ANR). The DEFIERTM laboratory brings together IMN researchers (graduates from CNRS and the University of Nantes) and Armor teams. Five Innovation and Research themes have already been identified: pre-‐coated current collectors for batteries and Ultracapacitors, metallic electrodes by dry deposition processes, photo-‐batteries, transparent electrodes and organic batteries. The shared objective is clear: to push science forwards while developing products which allow Armor and IMN to play a key role in energy transition. “By innovating concrete energy transition solutions, Amor plans to contribute to the development of research and cutting-‐edge ‘Made in France’ technology with the ambition of being exported throughout the world, as is the case today for the Thermal Transfer printing ribbons”, explains Hubert de Boisredon.



En' SafeTM Current collectors A tailor-‐made product to improve the safety, performance and service life of lithium-‐ion and ultracapacity batteries

A new activity for Armor in the line of energy storage

Armor is unveiling a new activity in the line of energy storage which has secretly been developed since 2009 and of which sales have just begun. Armor is a manufacturer with world-‐renowned know-‐how in the fields of chemical formulation and coating thin layers onto thin surfaces (a few micrometres). Historically present in the field of printing, Armor intends to become a player in energy transition, a major social challenge for the third millennium. This activity brings together around thirty individuals, most of whom are engineers (including two Doctors of Chemistry and Processes). Looking forward to 2020, around thirty new recruits shall be hired, with turnover aimed at 30M€.

En’ SafeTM responds to strong demand by battery manufacturers and their users Most of us are familiar with our laptop battery lasting half as long after two years, our mobile phone battery overheating or perhaps electric vehicles being restricted to a 100km range. Computers, laptops, smartphones or electric vehicles: whether you know it or not, we all use lithium-‐ion batteries. Their safety, performance and service life are major issues that the optimisation of one of their strategic components, the current collector, helps to improve. To respond to this challenge, Armor came up with En’ SafeTM, a current collector pre-‐coated with a layer which protects against chemical attacks while at the same time reducing electrical internal resistance and improving adherence. Armor offers manufacturers of Lithium-‐ion batteries and Ultracapacitors a tailor-‐made product designed for large-‐scale manufacturing and which is perfectly suited to their specific electrochemistry and manufacturing processes.



The market boom in Lithium-‐ion and Ultracapacity batteries Thanks to their ten-‐times superior performance to traditional lead batteries, Lithium-‐ion batteries have given way to such products as laptops, tablets and smartphones. In sustainable mobility, Lithium-‐ion batteries are an essential element of electric vehicles (representing about a third of the price). Before long, they will allow for better integration of renewable energy in the electric grid by smoothening supply and demand. It is exactly in this rapidly growing market (20% per year) that Armor is keep on playing a role by supplying a strategic battery component: a current collector which allows for the collection then channelling of electric current from the interior of the battery to the exterior, while discharging, and vice-‐versa, while recharging. Armor is targeting a second segment of the market: current collectors for Ultracapacitors. This market is a little more secretive but its growth is steady (30% per year). Ultracapacitors also serve to store energy with shorter charge and discharge times (a few seconds or minutes depending on the application). They are used, for example, to regenerate braking energy rather than it being lost; to power tramways or to lower vehicular consumption thanks to advanced ‘stop-‐start’ systems.

En’ SafeTM, a completely new high-‐tech product, responding to the needs of future generations

Modes of transport are evolving. So that electric vehicles and sustainable mobility may be better incorporated into the urban landscape, it will become necessary to improve the

performance of energy storage systems. To respond to the challenges of battery manufacturers (more safety, greater performance, lesser aging rate), Armor has developed the En’ SafeTM current collector: a very thin aluminium or copper foil pre-‐coated with a special high-‐tech film which is unique on the market. ARMOR relied on its manufacturing know-‐how in the field of chemical formulation and high-‐precision coating (1 billion square metres produced every year)! En’ SafeTM allows for a reduction

in the electric internal resistance of batteries (a root cause of power loss and overheating,



thus a lack of safety). The pre-‐coating also protects the aluminium (or copper) foil against chemical and electrochemical attacks and improves adherence of the positive or negative electrode on the aluminium (or copper) sheet. It is worth noting one of the features of this market: every battery manufacturer develops its own electrochemistry and manufacturing process. Armor subscribes to this approach and, unlike its competitors, adapts its product to the needs of each client: an En’ SafeTM current collector specific to each and every client, designed for large-‐scale manufacturing. En’ SafeTM current collectors designed by Armor aim to increase Lithium-‐ion battery and Ultracapacitor service life, performance and safety. They contribute indirectly to the development of electric and hybrid vehicles as well as to the integration of renewable energy into the electric grid. Background to the industrial En’ SafeTM project

Armor launched this project in 2009 by way of an initial partnership with a leading battery manufacturer. To develop its range of En’ SafeTM current collectors, ARMOR has rapidly established new partnerships which have enabled it to perfect its understanding of market expectations and to develop products which call upon state-‐of-‐the-‐art science, techniques and manufacturing. With primary client feedback being extremely positive, the decision to invest in a brand-‐new, dedicated production plant was made in 2013. All in all, Armor has invested 15M€ in this new activity.

Today, Armor counts among its clients leading lithium-‐ion battery and Ultracapacitor manufacturers, in Asia, Europe and America. Sales in 2015 are experiencing strong growth. The turnover targeted for 2020 is around 30M€.



Armor works alongside IMN in setting up a joint laboratory, DEFIERTM Energy transition is a major societal challenge for our millennium. In this strategic market for Armor, only those players who innovate and propose cutting-‐edge, state-‐of-‐the-‐art and ground-‐breaking solutions may break into it. Armor and IMN are proud to announce that they are winners of a LabCom call for project, orchestrated and co-‐funded by the National Research Agency (ANR). This is a major turning point for the two partners. By bringing together their strengths and know-‐how, Armor and IMN embody a shared vision: “Manufacturing areas of innovation borne new scientific ideas. In return, scientific advances allow for the development of pioneering industrial solutions”. This vision is shared and endorsed by the ANR. For the En’ SafeTM current collectors, the joint laboratory, DEFIERTM, will enable Amor to reach a new milestone. The contribution by IMN shall not only focus on the realisation of lab-‐scale systems and the development of new coating techniques, but also the profiling and understanding of complex and new scientific phenomenons. Once the product has been developed in the laboratory, it then only remains to move it to an industrial scale and test it on complete, marketable battery systems. This is a scientific, technical and industrial challenge. It is necessary to bring together the complementary know-‐how of IMN and Armor to be able to achieve this and turn the technological innovation into a commercial success. This synergy of the two partners will be expressed daily within the joint laboratory where researchers from both IMN and ARMOR will be working. Five Innovation and Research themes have already been identified: pre-‐coated current collectors for batteries and Ultracapacitors, metallic electrodes by dry deposition processes, photo-‐batteries, transparent electrodes and organic batteries. The shared objective is clear: to push science forwards while developing products which allow Armor and IMN to play a key role in energy transition.

About IMN. IMN is a world-‐renowned academic laboratory (researchers from the CNRS and University of Nantes) in the area of energy; in particular, the area of batteries (400 publications and 30 patents in the last eight years). IMN is a materials expert: development of new materials, morphological and structural characterisation at different scales, and the determination of their properties.



Armor Group: facts and figures

Armor is the world specialist in high-‐precision thin-‐film coating technology. This medium-‐sized French company builds its development on both a co-‐industrialisation strategy and sustainable innovation.

• N°1 world leader of the Thermal Transfer ribbon

• N°1 producer of ink jet cartridges in Europe

• N°1 seller of remanufactured laser cartridges in France

• 2,000 associates in the world with 680 in France

• 24 industrial and logistics sites in the world

• An investment plan of 65M€ over the 2014-‐2018 period

• 1.6M€ invested annually to protect human beings and the environment

• 2014 T.O: 224M€, 80% from exports

• Management and personnel commitment: 56% of capital and 71% of voting privileges



Latest news from Armor Group

22 October, 2014

3 new plants in India, Mexico and South Africa

Armor pursues its quest of acquiring international markets thanks to three new plants for its Thermal Transfer printing supplies intended for packaging and barcode printing: Armor India in Bangalore, Armor Africa in Johannesburg and Armor Mexico in Queretaro.

7 April, 2014

Hubert de Boisredon and the management team take control of the company in an original form of Industrial and Innovation Capital Management (CMII)

Hubert de Boisredon and the Armor management team buy back the majority stake, previously owned by Orfite, an equity fund based in Lyon, France. They choose long-‐term development based on the values of humanism, innovation and industrial growth. This investment is built upon a new form of Industrial and Innovation Capital Management (CMII). They are supported by new investors including Arkéa Capital Partners which invested 30 million euros into this CMII.



Armor: an ambitious industrial project for the Group

Hubert de Boisredon and his team wish to put together a French and international industrial group for sustainable development which responds to the challenges of society.

The biggest challenges are:

⋅ The traceability of products, for the safety of goods and people. Today, Armor is the world leader in the production and marketing of Thermal Transfer printing films intended specifically for barcodes or various information markings on labels or packaging

⋅ The circular economy, by offering companies and individuals remanufactured printing cartridges (laser and ink jet), as well as a collection service which allows for 100% material recyclability

⋅ Energy transition, with the development, thanks to its industrial expertise, of current collector films for batteries in response to the growing need for energy independence from users in an increasingly mobile world, and of flexible and thin, third-‐generation organic photovoltaic films which will provide all with access to energy solutions from light by 2016.

Industry-‐related innovation: the genes of Armor

Armor has been built up from a series of technological innovations (carbon paper, fax, ink jet and laser cartridges, thermal transfer, 3rd generation OPV film, current collectors) which are all part of its culture. From the repeated success of these developments, Armor has decided to invest in renewable energy and energy storage.

To innovate is the nature of much; a must for Armor which has decided for six years now to invest heavily in thin films, photovoltaic solutions and current collectors for batteries by relying on its know-‐how in ultra-‐thin film ink coating. Armor Sustainable Energies (ASE), the new Armor development centre, has begun marketing products. The group wishes to position itself as a key European player in the sector and make this activity its third pillar, in addition to its activity in thermal transfer supplies for marking industrial packaging and barcode labels, as well as laser and ink jet cartridges for businesses and individuals.

This is a choice, one for the industrial future. The long-‐term vision makes sense to Armor.

armor is unveiling a new activity: press kit

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