Battery Safety article on HD Video Pro

What You Really Need to Know About Battery Safety Batteries. Everybody uses them, but nobody likes to talk about them. Battery safety in particular is not a subject that people like to dwell on, but it is an area that has come under renewed scrutiny as a result of some very high-profile incidents involving Boeing and Tesla.

Like it or not, Lithium-Ion is the battery chemistry that will be powering our industry for at least the next five years. It provides the best performance available to us today as it has a very high-energy density, is reasonably priced, and is safe if handled correctly.

And therein lies the key - "if it is handled correctly!"

Lithium-Ion and Safety

The issue with Lithium-Ion is not that it is inherently unstable, but that it burns without external oxygen. Once on fire, it is very difficult to put out, since most ways of extinguishing fire involve removing the external source of oxygen.

Typically the anode, electrolyte and cathode are constructed as a thin sandwich and then rolled to create a cylindrical canister, often the size of a AA battery. Before a cell can be released to the market, it is rigorously tested both physically and electrically, including, but not limited to, being crushed, pierced, heated up, overcharged, and over discharged. The cell can only be sold after these tests are passed successfully. Thus, a single cell is very safe.

Anton/Bauer Digital Battery Series.

Now imagine that 12, 16, 20 or even 24 of these individual cells are combined in a pack which is the kind of configuration used to provide the voltage and power needed for media applications. A second level of safety design is then required to make sure individual cells don't interact with each other. For example, if a battery is accidentally punctured or crushed, causing an anode and cathode to touch, suddenly it is not just a single cell's energy that could be routed through the defect; it is the whole pack's worth.

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