turbodog
Flashaholic
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RayT said:
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turbodog said:
Speculation, but possibly the venting process lowers the cell temperature. If you ARE discharging hot gases you want them to dissipate, not compress.
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Perhaps. But that would require venting a lot of gas and would certainly be noticeable in many of the sealed flashlights such as my L4 and U2. I have yet to hear any escape of gas when opening the lights after using them for as much as 15 minutes.
To compress gas enough to get high temperatures would require something like 200 PSI before it became uncomfortable. It would take much more than that to get the gas hot enough to combust other material. If you had in excess of 200 PSI in a flashlight you would certainly notice it when you removed the cap.
I still place my money on a knee-jerk reaction to a fire where a cause cannot be found. These plants have to have a reason for every incident along with a corrective action. The contractors bonus, and perhaps payment, is tightly tied to any safety events. If the contractor was found at fault they would be penalized. So finding an inanimate object at fault relieves the contractor, especially when the solution is that the contractor bans all CR123 batteries.
If the batteries were that hazardous there would be many recalls, advisories, consumer warnings, etc. There are not. The batteries are no more dangerous than any high current battery and in fact are much safer than lead acid cells.
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From my experience and a little common sense..... cells do not typically vent during normal operation. So, while I respect you, I find no correlation about your (or my) L4 not having a pressure build up after continued use.
To go further..... let's assume the light DID start the fire. My best bet would be ignition of vented gases. Does someone know for sure if these gases are flammable?
RayT said:
[ QUOTE ]
turbodog said:
Speculation, but possibly the venting process lowers the cell temperature. If you ARE discharging hot gases you want them to dissipate, not compress.
[/ QUOTE ]
Perhaps. But that would require venting a lot of gas and would certainly be noticeable in many of the sealed flashlights such as my L4 and U2. I have yet to hear any escape of gas when opening the lights after using them for as much as 15 minutes.
To compress gas enough to get high temperatures would require something like 200 PSI before it became uncomfortable. It would take much more than that to get the gas hot enough to combust other material. If you had in excess of 200 PSI in a flashlight you would certainly notice it when you removed the cap.
I still place my money on a knee-jerk reaction to a fire where a cause cannot be found. These plants have to have a reason for every incident along with a corrective action. The contractors bonus, and perhaps payment, is tightly tied to any safety events. If the contractor was found at fault they would be penalized. So finding an inanimate object at fault relieves the contractor, especially when the solution is that the contractor bans all CR123 batteries.
If the batteries were that hazardous there would be many recalls, advisories, consumer warnings, etc. There are not. The batteries are no more dangerous than any high current battery and in fact are much safer than lead acid cells.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
[/ QUOTE ]
From my experience and a little common sense..... cells do not typically vent during normal operation. So, while I respect you, I find no correlation about your (or my) L4 not having a pressure build up after continued use.
To go further..... let's assume the light DID start the fire. My best bet would be ignition of vented gases. Does someone know for sure if these gases are flammable?
