The market for lithium batteries and battery packs is booming. With extensive applications in automotive, IT, aerospace, consumer electronics and a myriad of industrial sectors, the usage of rechargeable lithium batteries is growing throughout the world. The market for lithium-ion batteries alone is expected to exceed $30 billion in the next few years. Unfortunately, the high energy storage capacity that we all want from lithium batteries has a more “explosive” side, as evidenced by news reports of exploding laptops and electric vehicle fires some years back with early adopters of the technology. The highly reactive chemistry of a lithium battery is carefully managed by design and control features within the individual cell and in the collection of individual cells that comprises a custom battery pack to fit an application. Under extreme abuse conditions, it is possible for damaged or malfunctioning components, short circuits, or other events to start a thermal runaway process that develops a rapidly rising pressure, leading to an explosive release of that pressure from a cell having a durable metal enclosure.
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