Industrial Standards and Organizations 165 Mandatory Standards Organizations United Nations (UN) 38.3 Perhaps the single most vital safety testing standard is the UN “ Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods: Manual of Tests and Criteria. ” as mentioned in Chapter 12 section 38.3 of this document, defines the testing standard that a lithium metal or lithium-ion battery cell, module, or pack must pass prior to being approved for shipping. The document includes the testing methodology, the testing quantities, and identifies the passing criteria.
For lithium-ion batteries, there are a set of eight (8) tests that all lithium-ion or lithium metal batteries must pass prior to being approved for shipping via any method. These tests include: Test T.1: Altitude simulation Test T.2: Thermal test Test T.3: Vibration Test T.4: Shock Test T.5: External short circuit Test T.6: Impact/crash Test T.7: Overcharge Test T.8: Forced discharge It is necessary to understand whether you are testing a cell, a module, or a pack and whether it is rechargeable or not as this determines how many of the tests that must be conducted and must be passed. All lithium-ion and lithium metal cells must pass T1 through T6 and T8.
The overcharge test is excluded for cells as there would be no way to provide a charge to an unassembled cell during transport. All nonrechargeable cells must pass T1 through T5. All rechargeable battery types, which for this purpose means any assembly of more than one cell including bricks, blocks, modules, and packs, are required to be tested to T1 through T5 and T7 (United Nations, 2013). This last definition is an important one, as the early publications of this requirement were not clear on the definitions and differences between cells and modules and pack. The new regulation states:
Units that are commonly referred to as “battery packs”, “modules” or “battery assemblies” having the primary function of providing a source of power to another piece of equipment are for the purposes of the Model Regulations and this Manual treated as batteries. (United Nations, 2013) The requirement also allows for the shipment of up to 100 prototypes via truck per year. This was added as the original regulation created a bit of a chicken and egg scenario, as the original regulation did not allow for any shipments without certification, but that also eliminated the ability for manufacturers to actually get product to the testing houses.