Eniquest is the Australian leading independent power specialists and supply and design all your power storage requirements. Eniquest always discusses the importance of understanding power to make sure you have a correct knowledge of the battery systems and ensure you are managing the system cells correctly. An example how it can go terribly wrong is back in June when NASA installed a lithium-ion battery system into it ape-inspired robot RoboSimian. When NASA plugged the Ape inspired robot into charge at their Jet Propulsion Laboratory they had their highly anticipated testing phase cut very short in a spectacular and extremely expensive fireball.
So what happened to the beloved NASA RoboSimian? Well NASA is yet to release the final outcome of the investigation, but according to WIRED who contacted Brett Kennedy, the head of the RoboSimian project, suspects a damaged cell resulted in the beginning of the explosion. In the charging process, the cell got overcharged which lead to overheating, then causing it to catch on fire. Once a cell had ignited the chain reaction begun and the whole 96 cell system ignited in a very dangerous and fiery fashion.
It is extremely important to ensure that your battery management system can handle the current coming from the power source or generator. If the system cannot handle the incoming charge current you can get a cell imbalance and result in overheating, then possible fire.
Lithium-ion batteries have been getting a lot of media lately due to the Samsung Galaxy Note7 mobile phone, which has been exploding on users. Samsung has made an entire recall on the exploding models. Although your phone won’t explode in the same fashion as the Samsung mobile only contains one cell. Eniquest always discusses with customers the benefits and disadvantages of lithium-ion battery systems and if it really is the better solution in your application over durable lead-acid deep cycle batteries. Eniquest are the leading power specialist in remote power including battery storage systems, contact one of our power specialists to ensure your system is right for the job and most of all SAFE!
To learn more about Power and how the charging process works click here.