When Hilti announced its Nuron battery platform in 2021, there were open questions on whether its commitment to a single 22-Volt battery format would hold as it moved into more demanding applications normally dominated by corded and gas-powered tools. The tool manufacturer has answered that with 60 new heavy duty tools in cutting, breaking and drilling applications that all can run off of its existing Nuron batteries.
Tackling more demanding tool categories, without introducing heavy-duty batteries, was always the goal of Nuron, says Ewald Kaluscha, Hilti global head of marketing and senior vice president for power tools and accessories. “When we first launched Nuron in 2021 and 2022, we had put a lot of thought into that electrical and mechanical interface that connects tools and batteries should be designed to be future-ready,” he explains.
The new Nuron battery-powered band saw offers consistent power the whole charge.
Photo by Jeff Rubenstone/ENR
In the new lineup are several tools that normally would struggle to get through a shift on one battery. Metal drilling, concrete coring and cut-off saws tend to lose their bite after a few holes or cuts, but Hilti has endeavored to maintain productivity until the Nuron battery runs dry.
ENR tried out several of these along with breakers and angle grinders at a Hilti event recently, and found the tools kept their power through the battery cycle. The associated dust control systems, whether as vacuum-based hoods for portable drills or water-based systems for core drills also run on the Nuron platform, avoiding the need to juggle multiple batteries around the site. And the Nuron-powered TE 3000 cordless jackhammer has about as much breaking power as one operator can handle, all on the same batteries as the smaller tools. Hilti also showed off the TE 1000 portable concrete breaker running on Nuron, which could be used in conjunction with its wearable EXO-S exoskeleton, which transfers the weight of the tool to the operator’s hips. The rig allows the operator to drill at waist and shoulder height without placing the full weight of the tool on their arms, reducing overall fatigue.
Silica dust is captured through vacuum or water-based systems also run on batteries.
Photo by Jeff Rubenstone/ENR
Battery Tech Opens New Horizons
While this current expansion of Nuron goes after some of the most demanding corded and gas-powered tool categories, Kalushcha says there is more on the way yet. “There is still room to take it even further,” he says, citing recent developments in battery cell technology in improving power density and reducing waste heat.
“With the chemistry we use inside the battery, we’re seeing such rapid improvements—especially in the last couple of years—that in conjunction with a [tool] interface ready to take that energy and put it into the tool, the chemistry is getting so much better that in the same size of package you are able to double, or maybe in the future triple, what is inside there,” he notes. And greater battery power means the hassle of setting up onsite power for corded tools or arranging fuel for gas-powered gear just isn’t worth it after a certain point.
And future-proofing their tool offerings is a natural fit for Hilti, adds Kaluscha, since the previous battery standard lasted 25 years. “There is so much on the horizon now a tool-battery interface from the 1990s wasn’t enough. We’ve put so much effort into Nuron, we want to see them out there for two decades-plus.”
