What is Thermal Abuse?
The battery separator is a critical component to the safety of the battery cell. High quality separators are essential to high quality cells. When we test the cell/battery, we condition cell/battery at either the upper or lower limit charge temperature of the cell operating region for 1-4 h , then CV Charge cell/battery at the upper limit charge voltage of the cell operating region until the charging current is reduced to 0.05 It A . The oven temperature is raised at a rate of 5℃/min ± 2℃/min to a temperature of 130 ℃ ± 2℃. and hold the cell/battery at 130°C for 10 min ( Large cells (i.e. gross mass > 500 g) held at 130°C for 30min. )
Acceptance criteria: An extremely high temperature shall not cause fire or explosion.
Why Thermal Abuse is Important?
Safety: Lithium cells have been developed for high-power applications for years. These cells offer superior performance in terms of power and energy density over current cell chemistries. However, the safety of these cells needs to be understood since there are so many manufacturers and kinds of cells on the market. Our choices will be based not only on the electrical performance of the cells but also on the inherent safety and stability of the cells under normal and abusive conditions.
Trust: Bottom line, we need to know which manufacturer and cell are safe and reliable to use.
As a custom battery pack assembly manufacturer, what can AA Portable Power Corp provide to our customers?
Today, the cost for apply IEC62133 for the cell and pack are high. The cell needs to pass the IEC62133 first before the battery pack. Lot of our customers have to spend around $10,000 to $20,000 to get the IEC62133 certificate. In cell’s test, thermal abuse is one of the most important steps which is very hard to control since it highly depends on the quality of component inside.
During the past few years, lots of customer asked our sales and tech support the same question over and over again, "can we simulate this test before we invest so much money for IEC62133 certificate? What if the test failed and all my investment are gone." Now, at AA Portable Power, you can invest just small amount of money to gain confidence about your cell/battery before submitting to testing labs.
At AA Portable Power , we can perform thermal abuse test at much lower cost. Please email us for quotation.
If you are interested in buying a thermal abuse tester , please also email us for price and lead time.
Example of Thermal Test (click picture to enlarge)
Testing result for one polymer cell and one 3-cell battery pack:
Step 1) Between 70-80°C - the cell(left) & battery pack (right) begin to swollen
Step 2) At 100°C - the cell & battery pack swollen to maximum (as shown in above picture)
Step 3) Between 100-130°C - no future change, the apperance is same as step 2)
Updated on 3/16/2015