Burnt Protected 18650 Batteries

I just received an order for 2 Protected 18650 Batteries.

This is how the package arrived.







The package came in this bag.



There was only 1 battery.

Has this happened to anybody?

Maybe they threw out the other one? Really weird, maybe the protection circuit shorted?

Holy crap!

That suggests it is not a good idea to ship such batteries loose in a padded envelope. Who knows what kind of mechanical stresses and shocks can be applied to the outside of the package in transit that might crush the batteries?

that dont look good

Worse than that it is lucky that a whole batch of mail didn't catch fire during a flight which may have bought the whole aircraft down,
This had the possibility of becoming a much larger incident with buildings or aircraft and lives in danger.
Norm

Norm said:

Worse than that it is lucky that a whole batch of mail didn't catch fire during a flight which may have bought the whole aircraft down,
This had the possibility of becoming a much larger incident with buildings or aircraft and lives in danger.
Norm

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Well, quite. It is against postal regulations to send incendiary devices through the mail. It would not be beyond possibility for someone to get sued or prosecuted over such an incident.

Was the fire from inside the package or from the outside?

If a package burst into flames during shipping I don't think they would just slap a sorry sticker on it and deliver it. I could see some men in suits showing up on your doorstep before the package would be released.

Norm said:

Worse than that it is lucky that a whole batch of mail didn't catch fire during a flight which may have bought the whole aircraft down,
This had the possibility of becoming a much larger incident with buildings or aircraft and lives in danger.
Norm

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+1. But it must have happened during ground transport. If it caught fire in the air I'm sure FBI would have been the ones delivering the package, not USPS.

Mr Happy said:

Well, quite. It is against postal regulations to send incendiary devices through the mail. It would not be beyond possibility for someone to get sued or prosecuted over such an incident.

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A LiIon cell is not an incendiary device. Do you have any idea how slow things would get if lithium cells and batteries had to be shipped exclusively by sea or by road?

Man, that cell did a real number on that package. Perhaps it was thrown around real hard? Some postal services are known for the lack of care with which they treat their packages.

Hmm. Seems to have burned the package only where it itself was... had it blown up / vented with flame the whole thing would have been reduced to a cinder, possibly including the vehicle the cell was in when the accident happened.

Fallingwater said:

A LiIon cell is not an incendiary device. Do you have any idea how slow things would get if lithium cells and batteries had to be shipped exclusively by sea or by road?

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Maybe you missed the sardonic tone in my comment, but nevertheless that does look very much like a device that incended. There is plenty of evidence of charred paper and burning there.

If you were taking such batteries on a plane you would be required to pack them in a secure and properly designed container so that they cannot accidentally short out or be damaged. Slinging a couple of them into a padded envelope does not count.

I'm curious: what is the usual way these batteries are shipped from a reputable vendor? Do they arrive in a rigid plastic battery holder, or is it common to ship them loose and unprotected?

I've received batteries shipped from USA and NonUSA vendors with no problems.. This is surely a very isolated incident... And with out any facts, speculation, well.... is just that..

merely speculating...

It could have gotten dropped/smashed in shipping and caused the protection circuit +V to short to -V. Theres nothing more than thin heat shrink separating +V from -V.

Thank goodness you are OK.

"Isolated incident" is never an excuse or justification for something going wrong. The first time a space shuttle blew up it was an isolated incident. It is necessary to examine the potential ways in which something could go wrong and then put designs in place to safeguard against those failures.

A protected lithium ion cell has a potential short circuit built right into it as a metal strip running between the positive and negative ends, as noted above. And a short of one of these cells is definitely not a good thing.

I can foresee a day that the sale and use of individual lithium ion cells outside of pre-manufactured packs will be prohibited unless more respect and care is given to these potentially dangerous devices.

This event is not something to be shrugged off lightly. It is something severely dangerous and worrying.

Mr Happy said:

Maybe you missed the sardonic tone in my comment, but nevertheless that does look very much like a device that incended. There is plenty of evidence of charred paper and burning there.

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I can see that myself, I just meant that LiIon cells, while capable of causing a fire, aren't incendiary devices - i.e. not meant to be used for that purpose. Sorry if my comment came out as hostile, I didn't mean it to.

I'm curious: what is the usual way these batteries are shipped from a reputable vendor? Do they arrive in a rigid plastic battery holder, or is it common to ship them loose and unprotected?

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I'm curious about this myself. Since a burning cell can conceivably bring down a plane, not to mention set fire to post offices and such, I'm thinking some form of flameproof shipping package should be necessary.

tsk tsk tsk...

gee, more reason for the FAA to ban lithium rechargeable batteries now...
this is the first [unconfirmed] case AFAIK of cells that apparently went in open circuit I've seen on CPF.

subscribed

I agree that it's probably the protection circuit. It got whacked hard, and either it shorted or the positive strip got out of alignment with the insulator and that shorted.
Ironic that the protection circuit, which is supposed to prevent fires and accidents, probably caused this...

At risk of igniting a flamewar, out of interest, what brand were these batteries?

damn, i hope the compass still works

kramer5150 said:

merely speculating...

It could have gotten dropped/smashed in shipping and caused the protection circuit +V to short to -V. Theres nothing more than thin heat shrink separating +V from -V.

Thank goodness you are OK.

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Agreed I was just thinking the same thing, I'd say the protection strip down the battery shorted and got hot enough to blow like a fuse and being buried in a pile of other mail there would have been insufficient air for the fire to get going, probably smouldered until it smothered, otherwise if it had have vented with flame it would have really started something.
Norm

PS This probably wouldn't have happened with an unprotected cell

Aircraft automatic fire retardant systems have been found to be effective on Li-Ion cells. It is the primaries that don't go out.

The vendor who shipped those did not package them safely.

-- Alan