Safety and Fire Testing

A battery pouch on fire.
 

Safety and Fire Testing

The BDC safety test room provides the ability to conduct safety, abuse, and thermal runaway tests on battery cells up to 500Ah capacity.

Test Types

The test room is equipped with a pressure vessel for collection of vent gas samples in an inert atmosphere, to determine the volume and composition of vent gasses during thermal runaway events. The nail penetration device enables quick thermal runaway tests to characterize thermal runaway temperatures and explosion and flaming severity.

BDC is accredited for UL9540A testing on the cell level and can conduct a range of other tests to explore the safety of battery cells:

  • UL9540A Cell Level Tests
  • Overheat
  • Overcharge
  • Short-Circuit
  • Nail Penetration
  • Gas Capture and Analysis
  • Customized Safety Tests
The Test Room, featuring a battery penetration testing station and a pressure vessel for collecting vented gasses.

The Test Room

A nail puncturing a pouch cell battery, causing the battery to burst into a purple flame.

Nail Penetration Test

A pouch cell battery that is overcharged and bursts into flames.

Overcharge Test

Large BESS Fire Tests

A battery container on fire during one of the large scare fire tests.

BDC-Testing can work with BESS manufacturers and integrators to conduct large scale fire testing of entire Battery containers that are increasingly required by AHJs and permitting authorities to approve larger projects. For this we work with our customers to develop test plans, witness the testing at partner test sites and write independent reports summarizing the results.