
Understand and Prevent Battery Fires and Explosions – and Avoid Costly Failures Like the Samsung Note 7
Modern batteries (eg Li-Ion) contain hazardous chemicals & they heat up during use: this combination always has the potential to cause fires & explosions. This presentation will focus on improving the understanding of how these incidents occur, what can be done to avoid them & how the risk can be minimized during early stage design.
The Samsung Note 7 phone & Boeing Dreamliner airplane fires are very costly examples of how even large corporations fail to understand the potential fire risk of batteries.
The solution lies in knowledge of heat generation rate during normal use & information about safe boundaries such as temperature, discharge rate & overcharge, in realistic situations that represent actual use conditions. Data from commercial batteries of different types will be used to illustrate these points.
A relatively new technique will also be discussed with data, which allows total heat output during discharge to be measured on-line and this can be used both for design and battery modelling. Examples of the data will be provided.
This webinar will focus on the following key topics:
• Why battery fires & explosions occur
• How to design safer batteries though understanding of heat generation
• Video evidence of batteries under explosive conditions
• How better thermal management systems can be designed – based on heat measurement from isothermal calorimetry
• Laboratory instruments suitable for testing and data generation
Presenter
Dr. Jasbir Singh – Managing Director at Hazard Evaluation Laboratory
Jasbir is a chemical engineer specializing in thermal hazards and calorimetry, traditionally for the chemical industry but now increasingly involved in battery safety, especially Li-ion EV and related types.
A graduate of Imperial College (London), where he undertook PhD into combustion and explosions, his experience includes many years in process design for the chemical and petrochemical industries. He is currently developing test methods and instruments for use in design of battery thermal management systems.
Buy Now

Certification Challenges for Secondary Use EV Batteries
As the 1st generation of Lithium-ion based hybrid and battery electric vehicles are reaching end-of life, or original traction batteries are being replaced with new batteries, the interest in secondary life or repurposing of these batteries continues to grow. Lithium-ion batteries present several challenges to Auto OEM’s, Recyclers and waste operators. Repurposing of EV batteries for non-automotive applications also creates new challenges for certification and acceptance by AHJ’s (Authorities Having Jurisdiction). This webinar discusses the current market challenges and concerns, while providing a roadmap of the current options for various usage cases of reused or repurposed EV batteries.
This webinar will focus on the following key topics:
• Understand the usage cases for secondary life batteries
• Review market drivers for secondary use batteries
• Review the concerns of battery and cell manufacturers with re-use of lithium-ion batteries
• Discuss the unique challenges to certifying used batteries for new applications
• Discuss current options for certification in the US market
Presenter
Rich Byczek – Global Technical Director for Transportation Technologies at Intertek
Rich has over 20 years of experience in product development and validation testing, 14 of which have been spent at Intertek. Mr. Byczek is also an expert in the areas of energy storage, audio equipment and EMC testing. He sits on several SAE, IEC, UL and ANSI standards panels, focusing on Energy Storage and Electric Vehicle Technologies. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan, and is based at the Intertek facility located in Plymouth, Michigan.
Buy Now

Advancing Mining Processes to Make Better Materials for Use in Lithium Ion Batteries
American Manganese Inc has developed a low-cost, environmentally friendly hydrometallurgical process to recover manganese (Mn) from lower grade resources. American Manganese has applied for a patent for their hydrometallurgical process that produces electrolytic manganese metal with low energy and water consumption. American Manganese commissioned R&D contractor, Kemetco Research Inc to determine uses of Artillery Peak manganese resource material to generate high value alternative products. Chemical manganese dioxide (CMD) and lithiated manganese oxide (LixMn2O4) for use in rechargeable batteries were the areas researched.
The research was successful in producing CMD from Artillery Peak resource material with low cation impurities and avoiding processing steps that are known to introduce metallic impurities in the final product. Cation impurities cause capacity fade, whereas metallic impurities are known to cause catastrophic failures (such as fire and explosions) in lithium ion batteries. Working rechargeable lithium ion coin cell battery prototypes were produced from the CMD material.
This webinar will focus on the following key topics:
• Catastrophic failure of Li Ion batteries caused by metallic impurities that may be introduced from the mining of raw materials
• Conventional mining process to recover MnO2 used to make LiMn2O4
• Research on a new mining process that avoids steps known to introduce metallic impurities to recover MnO2 used to make LiMn2O4
Presenter
Norman Chow – President – Kemetco Research, Inc.
Norman earned a B.A.Sc. and M.A.Sc. in Metals and Materials Engineering from University of British Columbia. He is a Registered Professional Engineer (P. Eng.) in British Columbia. He has over 15 years of technology development and contract research experience. He is the President of Kemetco Research Inc., which he formed after acquiring the Industrial Process Division of BC Research Inc. BC Research had been in operation for over 60 years as an R&D contractor.
Buy Now

Battery Safety Assessment: From Cell to Pack Level
FREE Webinar – PlugVolt is a proud sponsor of this event.
For fast and reliable battery pack development, a virtual assessment of battery safety via simulation is presented. The methodology, from single cell abuse testing up to battery pack simulation of crash and crush loads, is discussed. Cell tests that provide detailed understanding of the mechanical behavior of single Li-ion cells are used to improve battery stiffness and to optimize battery pack design.
This webinar will focus on the following key topics:
• Method description: battery safety assessment from cell to pack level
• Abuse cell tests
• Abuse cell simulations
• Crash and crush simulations at module and pack levels
Presenter
Jeremy Gaume – Project Manager, Analysis of Engineering and Technology Powertrain Systems at AVL GmbH
Jeremy Gaume graduated from the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbeliard (U.T.B.M.), France, with a Master Diploma in thermo-mechanical system modelling and optimization. He has 10 years’ of experience in the automotive field. Before joining AVL, he worked at Magna Steyr for CAE crash (passive safety) assessment. After joining AVL, he was appointed as a Project Manager for Analysis of Engineering and Technology Powertrain Systems. Jeremy is an expert on crash/safety simulation for batteries.
Buy Now