
Safety is vitally important when using electronic devices in hazardous areas. Intrinsic safety (IS) ensures harmless operation in areas where an electric spark could ignite flammable gas or dust. Hazardous areas include oil refineries, chemical plants, grain elevators and textile mills. All electronic devices entering a hazardous. . Zone 0 Gas/vapors exist continuously or for long periods under normal use. Zone 1 Gas/vapors likely to exist under normal use. Zone 2 Gas/vapors unlikely to exist under normal use. Zone 20 Dust exists continuously or for long. [pdf]
Not all cells have built-in protections and the responsibility for safety in its absence falls to the Battery Management System (BMS). Further layers of safeguards can include solid-state switches in a circuit that is attached to the battery pack to measure current and voltage and disconnect the circuit if the values are too high.
The battery protection circuit disconnects the battery from the load when a critical condition is observed, such as short circuit, undercharge, overcharge or overheating. Additionally, the battery protection circuit manages current rushing into and out of the battery, such as during pre-charge or hotswap turn on.
The selected protection device must trip in case of a fault in less than 100 ms. In case the fault current provided by the battery does not allow for the finding of protection devices, such as a Circuit Breaker or fuse, that meets the derating criteria stated in point B, it is hence possible to increase the multiplier up to 0.7.
Further layers of safeguards can include solid-state switches in a circuit that is attached to the battery pack to measure current and voltage and disconnect the circuit if the values are too high. Protection circuits for Li-ion packs are mandatory. (See BU-304b: Making Lithium-ion Safe)
A protection device must be sized properly so that the energy flowing from the batteries during the failure will not cause damage to the batteries or other components along the short circuit path. The protection must clear the fault in less than 100 milliseconds. The impedance of the line is mainly resistance and inductance.
Need to consider the case also of parallel battery strings and the case when one battery string is damaged or not available. The nominal current of the remaining battery strings in the parallel system will increase and the protection system must not trip due to this.
We are deeply committed to excellence in all our endeavors.
Since we maintain control over our products, our customers can be assured of nothing but the best quality at all times.