There are a few reasons a battery bursts into flames: most commonly, too much heat or bad battery design makes the electrolytes react in such a way that an uncontrolled positive feedback loop called '
thermal runaway' occurs and leads to a fire."
Soteria's separator and current collector technology helps prevent internal cell short circuits from escalating into
thermal runaway. The Soteria BIG is building an open innovation platform around the Soteria architecture, with each member company using its own core expertise to advance the technology in ways that will promote its own commercial success.
An unidentified device defect or an error in the test program could cause
thermal runaway, a condition where device internal resistances would decrease, leading to higher currents and higher temperature.
The two battery fires in close sequence identified the issue that these batteries could go into
thermal runaway. What Boeing engineered to isolate that problem was to first conduct an extensive analysis of the battery packs.
For large scale demands, Li-ion batteries still struggle to meet cycling stability (lifetime degradation) and
thermal runaway, but that doesn't mean that they are not challenging the other technologies dominating this market (e.g.
Key event highlights for this year include an entire day of in-depth training by Exponent on battery design considerations, manufacturing best practices,
thermal runaway events, failure analyses, battery management systems (BMS), etc.
The fires are caused by lithium-ion batteries going into what is known as
thermal runaway inside the electronic devices.
The company's white paper provides a list of five items that automakers and their suppliers should cover to assure battery safety, including Test individual battery cells for 'tightness', Avoid '
thermal runaway' during transportation, require leak-test receipts on incoming batteries, check battery-module housings and packs for leaks and assure battery cooling-system quality.
E-cigs are more susceptible to
thermal runaway if they short-circuit or are damaged.
The fire department in the nearby Swiss town of Bellinzona later on Thursday posted on its Facebook page: "The violent impact to lithium-ion batteries could probably have caused a phenomenon called '
thermal runaway,' that is a rapid and unstoppable increase in temperature," citing fire safety expert Guido Zaccarelli.