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Why are Protection Circuits Needed?

Batteries can release high energies and the safety requirements for nickel- and lithium-based batteries and cells for portable applications are harmonized under IEC 62133. The standard came into effect in 2012 to reduce the global risk in transporting, storing and operating batteries.   The most basic safety device in a battery is a fuse that […]

Why do Old Li-ion Batteries Take Long to Charge?

Battery users often ask: “Why does an old Li-ion lake so long to charge?” Indeed, when Li-ion gets older, the battery takes its time to charge even if there is little to fill. We call this the “old-man syndrome.” Figure 1 illustrates the charge time of a new Li-ion with a capacity of 100 percent […]

Alternate Battery Systems

Analyze the pros and cons of other battery systems and learn what the potentials are. The media promotes wonderful new batteries that promise long runtimes, charge in minutes, are paper-thin and will one day power the electric car. While these experimental batteries produce a voltage, the downsides are seldom mentioned. The typical shortcomings are low […]

Types of Lithium-ion

Become familiar with the many different types of lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion is named for its active materials; the words are either written in full or shortened by their chemical symbols. A series of letters and numbers strung together can be hard to remember and even harder to pronounce, and battery chemistries are also identified in […]

What Is C-rate?

Observe how the charge and discharge rates are scaled and why it matters. Charge and discharge rates of a battery are governed by C-rates. The capacity of a battery is commonly rated at 1C, meaning that a fully charged battery rated at 1Ah should provide 1A for one hour. The same battery discharging at 0.5C […]

Summary Table of Lithium-based Batteries

Learn the key feature of each Li-ion in a summary table. The term lithium-ion points to a family of batteries that shares similarities, but the chemistries can vary greatly. Li-cobalt, Li-manganese, NMC and Li-aluminum are similar in that they deliver high capacity and are used in portable applications. Li-phosphate and Li-titanate have lower voltages and have less […]

Series and Parallel Battery Configurations

Learn how to arrange batteries to increase voltage or gain higher capacity. Batteries achieve the desired operating voltage by connecting several cells in series; each cell adds its voltage potential to derive at the total terminal voltage. Parallel connection attains higher capacity by adding up the total ampere-hour (Ah).   Some packs may consist of […]

A look at Old and New Battery Packaging

Discover familiar battery formats, some of which going back to the late 1800s. Early batteries of the 1700s and 1800s developed in Europe were mostly encased in glass jars. As batteries grew in size, jars shifted to sealed wooden containers and composite materials. In the 1890s, battery manufacturing spread from Europe to the United States […]

Safety Issues When Using Drones

Safety Issues When Using Drones The most common drone safety issues, next to pilot error are related to battery failures. If you’ve ever experienced battery failure during charging, storage, or operation, then you understand how alarming and potentially dangerous it can be. Over 200 injuries related to drone battery incidents were reported to the U.S. Consumer […]

What Are the Benefits of Battery Protection Systems?

From: Jack Bayliss You walk into work one morning and find out that a battery system isn’t working. What happens? How much time will you lose trying to fix it? Getting it back online will probably cost money, but how much?   When it comes to battery malfunctions, that’s not even the worst-case scenario. What […]