Battery Abuse Tolerance 151 Maritime Certification Another group of certifications that must be examined if your ESS is intended for maritime application are the DNV-GL, Lloyd’s, and ABS certifications. These organizations are in the early stages of developing unique certifications for lithium-ion batteries that are used in marine applications. Today, these three organizations have a newly published set of type approval certification standards focused on the use of lithium-ion batteries at the pack or system level, but to date none of these organizations have developed cell-level type approval or certification standards.
Design Guidelines and Best Practices First, make sure that you understand the end use market application for the battery. That is perhaps the most important step to developing a complete and effective DVP&R plan. The testing plan must take into account any industry specific testing and certifications in addition to those testing requirements driven by the customer. Second, talk with the customer. Each customer, whether they are a major automotive OEM, a small start-up manufacturer, or somewhere in between, will have a set of testing expecta- tions.
As the battery designer, it is your job to make sure that they understand what industry and regulatory testing is required, but the testing must ensure that the customer require- ments are also included. The three basic types of testing that are conducted on lithium-ion batteries include charac- terization testing, safety and abuse testing, and certification testing. Section 38.3 of the United Nations Handbook on the Transportation of Dangerous Goods regulates the testing that must be done in order to ship lithium-ion cells, modules, and packs. Marine applications require type approval and certification by agencies such as DNV-GL, Lloyd’s, and ABS.