On June 23, 2015, UL released a revision to UL 1642, the Standard for Lithium Batteries. This standard is the standard that is applied to Lithium Ion cells for obtaining a UL Recognition. The UL 1642 revision is a very modest update that affects only the Impact Test.
This revision is the second recently made to the standard to clarify the implementation of specific mechanical tests as they are applied to prismatic and pouch/polymer Lithium Ion cells. In July 2013, UL 1642 revisions were released to address crushing of these types of cells. That revision added an exception to the crush test section to remove the narrow side crush requirement for prismatic and pouch/polymer lithium ion cells. This latest UL 1642 revision is very similar. The Crush Test (Section 14 of UL 1642) has been updated to include an exception for Lithium Ion systems. The exception states that for Lithium Ion systems, pouch and prismatic cells are only to be impacted on the wide side. This eliminates the narrow side impact that had been required.
This UL 1642 revision is a welcome change to the standard and was strongly supported by the Standards Technical Panel. Other Lithium Ion battery standards have varying requirements for impact testing. The UN Manual of Tests and Criteria (UN 38.3) requires Crush Testing on prismatic and pouch cells instead of Impact Testing. IEC 6213 Second Edition does not include any Impact testing for Li Ion cells. You can purchase a copy of UL 1642 or the revision proposal through this link- http://www.comm-2000.com/ProductDetail.aspx?UniqueKey=23985.
Energy Assurance LLC is a fully accredited test lab under the Underwriters Laboratories Data Acceptance Program (DAP). Both UL 1642 and UL 2054 are included on our scope of accreditation with UL. We are also active members of the Standards Technical Panel for both UL 1642 and UL 2054.
