Battery Restriction Again? - [14 Apr 2015]

Just ordered 2 sets of 3400 pannys and 3100 all shipped today from fasttech

I think it only applies to flashlights.

I got the blf discount on my battery orders

Me too.

The BLF discount applies for “light and battery products”. This would include all flashlights, batteries and flashlight parts etc.

The coupon code worked for me and was applied to all the batteries I ordered.

I have bought LOTS of flashlight-related stuff from FT that the discount code didn't do squat for. For me, it works on so few items I don't even bother using it anymore.

You are right. I ordered many time and now then I realized that. :expressionless: So it is different from BG calculation.

Oh, 2600 samsung :bigsmile: where did you find those?

Laptop Cells are good for personal usage. Bought 3 more packs of Pannys from FT for resale.

Cautionary: much isn’t yet understood about lithium-ion (and the people making them aren’t disclosing how they’re made or tested)

https://www.ntsb.gov/news/2014/140522.html
—— quote——
… fire event showed evidence not just of an internal thermal runaway but that “unintended electrical interactions occurred among the cells, the battery case, and the electrical interfaces ….” …. there is no standardized thermal runaway test that’s conducted in the environment and conditions that would most accurately reflect how the battery would perform when installed and operated …. might not have adequately accounted for the hazards associated with internal short circuiting.

—-end quote——

———quote——-
… deciding what the safety standards should be has become the pursuit of an ever-moving target.
The more that lithium-ion battery technology develops, the more it appears
that the battery industry doesn’t fully understand the ways in which the technology can fail.
A commonly-used euphemism for this phenomenon is that the technology “is not yet mature.”

… a two-day public hearing to track the history of lithium-ion battery development … was openly frustrated by the lack of information …. related to the composition of the membership …. developers and manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries who are … lawyered up and ready to invoke proprietary secrecy and intellectual property rights to protect themselves from competitors. This materially affects what can be revealed about the behavior of batteries during testing….

————end quote——

Testing? What testing?
Just sell them to the electric-cigarette manufacturers.
Their customers will test them.
After all, what’s the worst that could happen?
They can’t be more dangerous than nicotine ….
———

There are two different places you can enter a coupon code on FT. One when viewing the cart and one on check out irrc. Only one of the places actually works with the BLF coupon, but I forget which one.

Something smells fishy here. GS Yuasa li-ion batteries are used on satellites for over two decades without a single catastrophic failure but suddenly their test procedures are not satisfactory for NTSB ?!?

I still think that primary cause of problem was in battery management or wiring of batteries not the cells themselves.

And certainly not to mention (again) catastrophic choice of location for main and backup battery in airplane…

Yuasa’s satellite web page says
“Our lithium ion cells have successfully completed several unique space qualification programs.”

That may be the difference right there — those cells aren’t the ones being sold cheap for consumer use.
Look at the detail they give: http://www.gsyuasa-lp.com/LSE-gen3

Looking at satellite batteries generally, those tests and failure modes are extensive (and published in many instances)
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?&q=related:37twnQn\_-F9fhM:scholar.google.com/

I’d guess that “throwaway” electric nicotine dispensers use cheap cells and chargers, which we know have caused fires
(I doubt they get the appropriate warnings we see routinely on flashlight blogs, either, when people start using li-ion cells)

I don’t know which cells Boeing used — but since they’ve had several fires in the operational aircraft, and there are no reports that they had similar fires during testing as they designed and built the aircraft, something must be different.

“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is …”

Ah, here’s a reason to look carefully at the manufacturing process — how clean it is and how carefully done:

“Hazardous battery failure, including fires, can be triggered by a number of factors. For example, micrometer-sized metal particles generated during cutting, pressing, grinding, and other manufacturing steps could contaminate the cells. The particles could accumulate and eventually form a short circuit—a conductive contact between the anode and cathode. According to Barnett, experienced manufacturers today use scrupulously clean methods that minimize contamination and therefore that mode of failure……”

That same ACS article also notes

“… lithium dendrites that grow through microscopic pores in the separator and bring the electrodes into direct electrical contact. That short circuit can cause the cells to discharge rapidly and generate a lot of heat.

Choosing a safe cathode is one key aspect of battery construction. But there are trade-offs. LiCoO2 cathodes developed in the early 1990s made Li-ion batteries the commercial success they are today. That material remains popular for consumer electronics because it provides relatively high charge capacity. Yet it is less stable than other cathode materials. At elevated temperatures, LiCoO2 liberates oxygen, which can react with organic cell ­components.

LiMn2O4 tolerates heat better than LiCoO2, but the manganese-based material’s charge capacity is lower, and it too decomposes at high temperature……”

and ends with

“… meanwhile, NTSB investigators working on the JAL 787 case continue combing through electrical- and mass-measurement data and various types of imaging results, searching for the cause of the battery fire. “…. It’s taking some time, but it’s important we get it right.” Knudson adds that the agency will soon issue safety recommendations based on its findings.

The advanced state of today’s Li-ion battery safety and the broad push to drive safety to even higher levels leaves Battery Safety’s Doughty upbeat about the battery’s transportation prospects. “I’m bullish on Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles,” Doughty says, “provided the required safety analysis is completed rigorously.”

Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © American Chemical Society

Just had bangood order cancelled due to not shipping to Australia anymore

same i said but i ordered torch with it if they restrict it i’ll have to cancel whole order.

Would be interesting to hear what changed the policy, can only assume Aus Post is on to them sending batteries and has made issue about the safety declaration?

I have some Sony VTC5’s on the way, I hope they get through… not from BG though…

Fasttech no longer ships batteries to Canada :frowning: I had some NCR18650PF’s paid for, but Fasttech support emailed me saying I can’t ship them via Malaysia post anymore.

Temporary or permanent? My order was shipped within a day. I think they are also rushing to clear all their stocks.

According to their shipping page, temporarily:

Mine was shipped on the 26th, whats the odds they get through