As battery technology develops, it has become increasingly important to ensure batteries are safe and reliable for everyday use, from smartphones to electric vehicles. Battery performance standards are crucial for ensuring quality and safety, as they cover critical areas such as capacity, cycle life, energy density, and safety features. Compliance with these standards is necessary for manufacturers to sell their batteries in specific markets and industries.
This article explores the importance of battery performance standards, discussing issues related to battery aging, performance loss and failures, and providing insights on UL Solutions’ tools and IEC standards. We will examine the challenges associated with battery performance standards and highlight the benefits of using these standards to ensure safe and reliable batteries.
The Importance of Battery Performance Standards
Battery performance standards are essential for ensuring the safety of lithium-ion batteries and other advanced rechargeable batteries, including lead-acid and nickel-based batteries. These standards cover critical areas such as capacity, cycle life, energy density, and safety features. Without compliance with these standards, manufacturers cannot sell their batteries in specific markets and industries.
The primary reason battery performance standards are vital is safety. Battery-induced failures can have severe consequences, affecting human lives and causing damage. Battery standards help ensure that lithium-ion batteries are safe and reliable for use in a wide range of applications. Manufacturers must comply with safety standards such as SAE, CENELEC, Telcordia, and IEC 62133, among others. Compliance with these safety standards is crucial for ensuring safe operations of industrial machines, uninterruptible power supplies, medical devices, and energy storage systems.
In addition to safety standards, manufacturers must also comply with performance standards. Compliance with performance standards is necessary for manufacturers to sell their batteries in specific markets and industries. In the absence of performance standards, discrimination is possible regarding the energy density and run time of other comparable test subjects.
Battery performance standards provide consumers with a reliable way to assess the quality and performance of batteries. When in compliance with industry-recognized performance standards, batteries undergo extensive testing under various environmental conditions to ensure performance under exceptional cases with a low possibility of occurrence. These test categories include temperature, humidity, vibration, shock and as well as other potential environmental factors that batteries might face during their lifespan.
Compliance with these performance standards is important not just for manufacturers but for consumers as well. As battery technology continues to advance, battery performance standards will play an increasingly crucial role in ensuring the safety and reliability of batteries in our day to day lives.
Stay tuned as we move on to exploring the issues related to battery aging and performance loss.
Issues Related to Battery Aging and Performance Loss
Manufacturers are aware of performance loss over time, but there is a deliberate silence on battery aging. The performance data means little and the manufacturer gets away with it, leaving the users with batteries that perform below expectations. Battery-induced failures are common, and some have serious consequences that affect human lives. For this reason, it’s critical to have reliable battery test devices for assessing batteries on the fly.
One of the challenges associated with battery aging and performance loss is capacity fade. Capacity fade refers to a decrease in the amount of charge a battery can store, leading to a reduction in run time and power output. This can occur due to several factors, including electrochemical processes, cycling, high temperature, and prolonged storage. Excessive current, large temperature gradients and deep discharge exacerbate their response, but by far, the most significant aging factor is time.
Another challenge is the need to assess batteries in the field, where it’s not possible to dismantle the batteries for testing. Battery aging can also vary significantly depending on usage patterns, operational environments, and charging characteristics. As a result, battery aging, and performance loss present significant challenges for manufacturers, consumers, and regulators alike.
Insights on UL Solutions’ Tools and IEC Standards
UL Solutions is a reputable, industry-leading research, and insights provider focused on navigating businesses in the complex world of battery performance standards. They offer digital tools and databases to access UL certification data on products, components, and systems and identify alternatives with Product IQ. This approach reduces research time, provides actionable insights, and simplifies information access across varying product categories among site visits. The Battery Standards Overview webinar conducted by UL Solutions explores all battery standards for consumer electronics, medical devices, small appliances, and micromobility devices, providing insights on testing and certification requirements of battery cells, e-cig and vape battery, electrical certification, lithium-ion battery safety concerns, precautions for brands, and micromobility device testing and certification.
The IEC or International Electrotechnical Commission standards for rechargeable batteries include IEC 62133 and, more recently, IEC 62619. IEC 62133 is an international standard for the safety of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The standard covers general safety requirements for secondary lithium cells and batteries, including those used in portable applications. The standard provides criteria for the safety of batteries under extensive use cases through repetitive charge and discharge cycles.
IEC 62619 is a new edition specifying safety requirements for secondary lithium cells and batteries used in industrial applications. The standard includes test methods for foreseeable misuses and addresses functional safety for battery management systems. The tests specified in the standard only address the first life of cells and batteries. These standards provide a baseline for ensuring the safety and quality of lithium-ion batteries, promote environmental sustainability, and support decarbonization of the power grid.
Conclusion
In conclusion, battery performance standards are essential for ensuring the quality and safety of batteries, as they cover critical areas such as capacity, cycle life, energy density, and safety features, among others. Compliance with these standards is necessary for manufacturers to sell their batteries in specific markets and industries, providing a reliable and safe end product. The lack of reliable battery test devices and the deliberate silence on battery aging and performance loss remain significant challenges in the battery industry. As the demand for batteries increases, navigating battery performance standards becomes increasingly complex, and insights from UL Solutions’ Tools and IEC standards can provide actionable steps towards navigating these complexities while prioritizing safety.
The use of advanced performance testing equipment, such as the BATSO devices which have been introduced recently, will be a significant boost to the industry as it will facilitate reliable testing of the battery under regular, fast, and discharge cycles. Battery performance standards provide a robust framework for ensuring the safety and quality of lithium-ion batteries, supporting the transition to electric vehicles, energy storage, and other sustainable energy solutions. Compliance with battery performance standards not only promotes environmentally sustainable solutions but also strengthens the lithium-ion battery industry’s competitiveness in global markets.
Jasmine Young is a passionate writer and researcher specializing in battery technology, with a keen interest in its applications across various industries and its role in shaping a sustainable energy future.