Thermal Safety Test Methods
Thermal safety test is an important part of the material development process. The electronic products today are especially light, thin, and small today with longer battery life. The energy density in the energy storage devices (batteries, chemical fuels) are getting higher and higher. When the devices encountered thermal runaway combustion, they would often cause a certain harm to the living bodies and environment. Coupled with the rise of consumer awareness today, manufacturers often need to bear joint liabilities, even huge compensation to pay. The material manufacturers or product manufacturers have to be careful about the safety of their products.
An Adiabatic Rate Calorimeter (ARC) is a special instrument, which is used to analyze the thermal runaway conditions of materials or final products. Different from general calorimeters, ARC can control the amount of heating by some steps in an adiabatic environment, and accurately sense the process. The temperature change of the sample in the adiabatic cell is detected, and the the colorimeter detects whether the sample has begun to enter thermal runaway reaction.
There are two main methods for measuring thermal runaway. They are Step Heating (also known as Heat-Wait-Seek, HWS) and Ramp Heating. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages:
1. Step heating or “heat wait seek” This is the classic ARC adiabatic method. It is a slow test, but it allows accurate detection of reaction onset, and complete tracking of the cell reaction.
Typical test time: 1-2 days
2. Ramp heating
This is a much quicker thermal abuse which is designed to achieve thermal runaway in a short time The cell decomposition can be analysed, but accurate onset temperature cannot be measured. In a ramp heating test, the cell undergoes excess heating. The test is not adiabatic.
Typical test time 1-2 hours.
ACTTR Technology is the distributor of the world leading ARC manufacturer in Taiwan. We brought to you the most advanced technology for your research and QC. For more detailed information, please Contact Us!