Safety testing of lithium cells

Safety testing is intended to simulate, under laboratory conditions and controls, situations that will subject a cell to externally induced stress. The stresses can occur at any time during the useful life of the cell, from the time of manufacture until it is expended during mission deployment. Abuse testing can be divided into three major categories: Electrical, Mechanical, and Thermal. Although electrical abuses are generally found to occur during handling or deployment, Mechanical and Thermal stresses can be induced during transportation and storage. Therefore, it would be prudent to include predicted environmental exposure as part of the test plan. In the selection of a test program. specific test requirements should be tailored to meet the predicted mission requirements.