Fire Safety For Lithium-Ion Batteries
As technology evolves focusing on speed, big data and mobility, the importance of reliable portable power is massive and steadily on the rise. This is why lithium-ion batteries are used to meet global energy demands.
Li-ion batteries are poised for big gains in data centre UPS Systems, and are already used extensively in energy storage, warehouse storage facilities, fork lift charging and manufacturing.
Whilst li-ion battery use is set to rise even further, fire safety is still a major concern. Fires can be devastating, and often the Fire Service will leave the fire to burn itself out rather than tackling it. Li-ion battery fires can arise from:-
- Overcharging
- Battery misuse or abuse
- Exposed to high temperatures
- Manufacturing defects
- Short circuits
Traditional fire systems are excellent at detecting smoke, but this is already too late as the chain of events is too far along the critical path. Gas detection systems could also be considered, however due to differing densities of gases and the positioning required, the quantity of gas detectors within a battery cabinet would make this prohibitive.
The Li-on Tamer system from Surefire is capable of detecting the off-gassing and is the only viable solution. Early warning of off-gas events enable proper mitigation steps to be taken to avoid progression to a catastrophic thermal runaway failure.
