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Electronics => Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff => Topic started by: CopperCone on December 17, 2017, 02:51:09 pm

Title: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: CopperCone on December 17, 2017, 02:51:09 pm
What are some good american lithium ion battery brands that are safe and preferably have more then the minimum safety features installed?

I don't trust Chinese culture to make a battery I feel safe in my home. My drill batteries are stored in a metal toolbox away from flammables. This is for a application that would be out.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: garboui on December 17, 2017, 02:55:23 pm
your going to be looking for a while. There are NA companies that make pack level solutions and have certifications done domestically, however they are just reselling Asian cells and massive markup.

Your best insurance is to stick with brand mane cells like, Samsung, Sanyo, LG, Panasonic, etc.. Not only this will give you some guarantee of safety but honesty of specs at the cell level.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: CopperCone on December 17, 2017, 02:59:42 pm
Oh, no north american companies actually make them at a cell level? That's what I am worried about, the intrinsic failure modes that can only be guaranteed by accountable manufacturing.

How about EU countries like France, Germany, etc.

I feel like some of those brands would basically  ::) at a scandal.. plus you can't really trust the managers and stuff. Too many counterfeits, late night production runs with less QA, etc.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: wraper on December 17, 2017, 03:02:43 pm
There are basically none which are widely available.
Major manufacturers are Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Sony. If you mean brand of battery packs, then good ones will contain elements of previously listed manufacturers.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: CopperCone on December 17, 2017, 03:04:05 pm
Any manufacturers that sell to the military? I bet they would want their stuff done domestically.

Where does the US military get their batteries anyway?

My application is a new battery that will go on a motorized telescope mount that has a microwave antenna on it. Like a positioner. It ordinarily used 12V of AA, but this is an unacceptable solution.

It would stay in the attic or outdoors, so the requirements are more stringent then a laptop or cellphone. It would have an enclosure in direct sunlight, etc.

Perhaps I will look for milspec batteries on digikey. 
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: Nusa on December 17, 2017, 03:08:47 pm
There's Tesla, but they don't sell to the general public at this time. About the only way to get those is on the secondary market from wrecked cars.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: CopperCone on December 17, 2017, 03:11:59 pm
any volunteer fire fighters want to help out? :-DD

Are they worried about other car manufacturers?

I'm sure everyone interested in high reliability and safety would be interested in American made batteries. I know when I worked on products I would instantly feel better if the parts specified were american.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: wraper on December 17, 2017, 03:15:22 pm
There's Tesla, but they don't sell to the general public at this time. About the only way to get those is on the secondary market from wrecked cars.
IMO looking for US or EU made batteries is rather stupid. What you certainly won't get is higher quality. Panasonic is good enough to be used by Tesla and Gigafactory is built in collaboration with Panasonic. Manufacturers I listed usually make their elements in either Japan or South Korea.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: CopperCone on December 17, 2017, 03:16:19 pm
I trust the work culture of those places. I guess the supply chain at digikey will be trusted..

Still, what does the military use? Interested.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: wraper on December 17, 2017, 03:18:09 pm
I trust the work culture of those places.
From my experience about EU often it's rather low.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: CopperCone on December 17, 2017, 03:19:41 pm
I trust the work culture of those places.
From my experience about EU often it's rather low.

I meant japan. Totally forgot they are made in Japan.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: wraper on December 17, 2017, 03:27:43 pm
(https://image.slidesharecdn.com/ef6u0cobsqwcznponk25-signature-20f1618543b047e7157c5d6bf2ece94f53e2ad18566ea6c38e32a73088564146-poli-141215031427-conversion-gate01/95/chinas-liion-battery-market-analysis-and-forecast-11-638.jpg?cb=1418614247)
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: David Hess on December 17, 2017, 04:15:58 pm
Tadiran Batteries might qualify and they make military products but availability for mere mortals may be a problem:

http://www.tadiranbat.com/tli-rechargable.html (http://www.tadiranbat.com/tli-rechargable.html)

In your situation however, I would look for LiFePO4 cells from a reputable manufacturer because they are tougher.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: edpalmer42 on December 17, 2017, 04:25:39 pm
Tadiran Batteries might qualify and they make military products but availability for mere mortals may be a problem:

http://www.tadiranbat.com/tli-rechargable.html (http://www.tadiranbat.com/tli-rechargable.html)

In your situation however, I would look for LiFePO4 cells from a reputable manufacturer because they are tougher.

LiFePO4 are also a lot safer than other Lithium cells.  Look on youtube for LiFePO4 torture videos.  They basically don't explode or burst into flames like other Lithium cells.  Obviously, any charged battery has to be treated with respect, but when you can attack a large cell with a hacksaw, you know it's relatively safe.

Ed
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: hagster on December 17, 2017, 04:29:10 pm
There is http://en.customcells.de (http://en.customcells.de) in germany.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: CopperCone on December 17, 2017, 05:01:07 pm
I like the sound of those lithium oxide batteries from tadiran
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: nctnico on December 17, 2017, 06:01:38 pm
Oh, no north american companies actually make them at a cell level? That's what I am worried about, the intrinsic failure modes that can only be guaranteed by accountable manufacturing.

How about EU countries like France, Germany, etc.
A Dutch company called Cleantron ( cleantron.nl ) does the entire assembly process in house. Quality is their selling point. They check every cell, keep records of every weld in every pack, do a full cycle test on each pack, etc. The reason they produce in the NL is because the Chinese are horrible at producing reliable battery packs.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: wraper on December 17, 2017, 06:17:33 pm
Oh, no north american companies actually make them at a cell level? That's what I am worried about, the intrinsic failure modes that can only be guaranteed by accountable manufacturing.

How about EU countries like France, Germany, etc.
A Dutch company called Cleantron ( cleantron.nl ) does the entire assembly process in house. Quality is their selling point. They check every cell, keep records of every weld in every pack, do a full cycle test on each pack, etc. The reason they produce in the NL is because the Chinese are horrible at producing reliable battery packs.
But those are just Panasonic, LG and Samsung cells as they state themselves.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: nctnico on December 17, 2017, 06:43:28 pm
Oh, no north american companies actually make them at a cell level? That's what I am worried about, the intrinsic failure modes that can only be guaranteed by accountable manufacturing.

How about EU countries like France, Germany, etc.
A Dutch company called Cleantron ( cleantron.nl ) does the entire assembly process in house. Quality is their selling point. They check every cell, keep records of every weld in every pack, do a full cycle test on each pack, etc. The reason they produce in the NL is because the Chinese are horrible at producing reliable battery packs.
But those are just Panasonic, LG and Samsung cells as they state themselves.
True but they buy directly from these manufacturers. Because they check every individual cell (and reject the ones which our outside the cell matching range) they can keep close watch on the quality of the cells they are receiving.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: Jeroen3 on December 17, 2017, 06:45:17 pm
There's Tesla, but they don't sell to the general public at this time. About the only way to get those is on the secondary market from wrecked cars.
Ehm. IIRC Tesla just contracts Panasonic to build and run a fab for them.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: Mr. Scram on December 17, 2017, 06:46:31 pm
What about Japanese cells?
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: Nusa on December 17, 2017, 07:52:19 pm
There's Tesla, but they don't sell to the general public at this time. About the only way to get those is on the secondary market from wrecked cars.
Ehm. IIRC Tesla just contracts Panasonic to build and run a fab for them.

That may be largely true, but the resulting batteries are still an American brand produced in America. Which is exactly what the original poster asked for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigafactory_1
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: wraper on December 17, 2017, 08:46:56 pm
There's Tesla, but they don't sell to the general public at this time. About the only way to get those is on the secondary market from wrecked cars.
Ehm. IIRC Tesla just contracts Panasonic to build and run a fab for them.

That may be largely true, but the resulting batteries are still an American brand produced in America. Which is exactly what the original poster asked for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigafactory_1
If you take apart used tesla battery, most likely you'll get japanese made Panasonic, not made at Gigafactory.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: Nusa on December 17, 2017, 09:18:20 pm
There's Tesla, but they don't sell to the general public at this time. About the only way to get those is on the secondary market from wrecked cars.
Ehm. IIRC Tesla just contracts Panasonic to build and run a fab for them.

That may be largely true, but the resulting batteries are still an American brand produced in America. Which is exactly what the original poster asked for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigafactory_1
If you take apart used tesla battery, most likely you'll get japanese made Panasonic, not made at Gigafactory.
Also quite likely, particularly on the earlier vehicles, since Telsa can't meet their own demand yet. Which doesn't make anything I said above incorrect, so far as I can see.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: wraper on December 18, 2017, 02:50:51 am
Also quite likely, particularly on the earlier vehicles, since Telsa can't meet their own demand yet. Which doesn't make anything I said above incorrect, so far as I can see.
Tesla started to use their own batteries since beginning of this year, and not nearly on all cars. So at this time the chance getting Gigafactory made batteries is very slim. Also if reliability is a priority, buying used batteries from crashed car is somewhat dubious.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: viperidae on December 18, 2017, 06:10:20 am
I am failing to see how a battery made in a country with no expertise by a company with insignificant volume and market share would be more reliable or safer than one from LG/Panasonic/Sony.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: Daixiwen on December 18, 2017, 08:03:20 am
Saft (https://www.saftbatteries.com/) has a good market share in the military, both in Europe and the US. But I don't think the average Joe can buy any of their rechargeable lithium batteries. Tadiran is also owned by Saft IIRC.
Title: Re: good american lithium ion battery brands
Post by: rx8pilot on December 18, 2017, 08:06:23 am
I am doing my first battery project and chose A123. The design needed: Safety, reliability, high-current for short durations, modest/low capacity.

Hope I don't blow anything up.