Challenge
One of our customers—a battery manufacturer in North America— needed to obtain the UN38.3 and UL1973/UL2271 safety certification for a 48 V 6.7 kWh battery pack developed with DSC’s assistance.
UN38.3 is the basic certification required for transportation, while UL1973/UL2271 was important for this client to ensure their batteries met the safety and quality standards of the North American market. This process required a significant amount of technical documentation, including the BMS circuit and firmware designs and mechanical drawings. Datasheets of the battery cells and the main electronic and mechanical components also had to be submitted for review.
Safety certification involves a significant amount of technical documentation and procedures and can be an intimidating task for unexperienced battery pack manufacturers
Approach
Lithium battery safety certification procedures are famously stringent, even more so in the case of a high-capacity battery pack. Our customer had never applied for this kind of certification before, and asked DSC Energy—which had already helped design this product—to support them in the proces.
Our client’s battery packs are now certified for transportation
Solution
Project management and communication were keys for this project. First, we organized several meetings with the certifying agencies to understand the procedures and requirements of the UN and UL standards. After several discussions and negotiations, we agreed on the cost and testing schedule. Before conducting the tests, the battery specifications were reviewed in detail with UL engineers. After some of the samples failed the initial test, we helped our customers find the origin of the fault and undertake the necessary corrective action, improving the battery pack’s design. After those design changes were implemented, the product passed all tests and our customer was able to obtain the UN38.8 certification in three months and UL1973/UL2271 in eight months.
We helped improve the battery pack’s design based on the results of the initial testing, so that our customer was able to obtain the UN certification and three and UL in eight months