SAFETY TESTING
Mobile Power Solutions (MPS) can ensure your OEM equipment and battery achieve the highest standard of safety with our comprehensive testing services and test facilities. Complying with the mandatory and optional regulations provides a certain level of assurance of safe operation. Many of the safety tests are required to receive regulatory approvals on batteries, such as UN 38.3, IEC 62133, and UL 2054.
More importantly, the usage profile of specific OEM equipment or battery may dictate additional safety testing for less common corner-case scenarios. MPS can verify that your OEM equipment and battery will perform safely in all situations throughout the life of the product. With one of the largest and best-equipped battery test facilities in North America, MPS can simulate extreme conditions and scenarios to test your battery beyond its limits. Battery safety tests, or abuse tests, can expose batteries to conditions that exceed the requirements of regular use. These safety tests ensure that batteries fulfill their legal, industry and manufacturer requirements.
The primary safety concern with Lithium-ion technology is thermal runaway. Thermal runaway is a series of self-sustaining exothermic reactions that lead to a venting (of the cell), fire, or explosion. Most cells have the potential to experience thermal runaway due to the chemical nature of current Lithium-ion technology. Thermal runaway can occur under normal operating conditions. Quality issues like poor quality control during cell manufacturing or inexperienced assembly of battery modules can lead to internal cell-level or module-level short circuits, which can generate excessive heat. Once the initial cell ignites, this ignition can propagate to adjacent cells, resulting in thermal runaway.
MPS specializes in characterizing thermal runaway with Lithium-ion batteries. Unlike many test facilities, our facility has the required municipal approvals and safety mechanisms to support venting, fire, and explosion of cells as a result of our testing. We can characterize the conditions that force an individual cell into thermal runaway (i.e. cell-level thermal runaway), as well as characterize the conditions that allow the ignited cell to propagate ignition to the adjacent cells (i.e. module-level thermal runaway).
Our standard safety testing for cells and batteries include:
- Fire exposure
- Nail penetration
- Failure propagation
- Gas analysis
- Crush test
- Thermal runaway
- Pressure wave analysis
- Corner case analysis
- Life cycle performance at temperature
- HPPC testing
- Dynamic Stress Test (DST)
- Accelerated aging
- Destructive physical analysis
- Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) & CT scan
- Module crush
- Module overcharge
- Module over discharge
- Module external short circuit
The European Council for Automotive R&D (EUCAR) has defined hazard levels to assess and predict a specific level of danger associated with handling and testing batteries according to predictable events. As batteries are exposed to various test conditions outside their normal operating range, a hazard level is assigned to describe the potential event and effect. These hazard levels provide test facilities with a standardized rating system to profile how a cell or battery reacts during a specific test.
- Hazard Classification 0 – No Effect
No effect & No loss of functionality - Hazard Classification 1 – Passive Protection Activated
No defect; no leakage; no venting, fire, or flame; no rupture; no explosion; no exothermic reaction or thermal runaway. Cell reversibly damaged. Repair of protection device needed. - Hazard Classification 2 – Defect/Damage
Same as hazard classification 1; however, the cell is damaged irreversibly and must be replaced. - Hazard Classification 3 – Leakage, Loss of Mass < 50%
No venting, fire, or flame; no rupture; no explosion. Weight loss <50% of electrolyte weight - Hazard Classification 4 – Leakage, Loss of Mass > 50%
No fire or flame; no rupture; no explosion. Weight loss > 50% of electrolyte weight - Hazard Classification 5 – Fire or Flame
No rupture; no explosion (i.e. no flying parts) - Hazard Classification 6 – Rupture
No explosion, but flying parts of the active electrode mass - Hazard Classification 7 – Explosion
Explosion (i.e. disintegration of the cell)
MPS can utilize these defined hazard levels to rate the reaction of a cell or battery for each safety test regarding the handling, use, and abuse of cells and batteries.
Example A – Nail Penetration Test
Thermal image of Nail Penetration Test at beginning and end of test
Example B – Fire Exposure Test
Lithium-ion cells undergoing Fire Exposure Test
Example C – Thermal Runaway
Thermal runaway typically starts with an initial cell overheating, and can lead to uncontrolled fire as adjacent cells ignite.
