Neometrix / EV Battery Test & Validation Systems / Battery Abuse Test Chamber with Gas Scrubber / NMX-BAC-36

NMX-BAC-36 · ENGINEERED-TO-ORDER CLASS — ABUSE · CONTAIN · EXTRACT · SCRUB

Battery Abuse Test Chamber with Gas Scrubber. The test is meant to make the battery fail, so the chamber is built for the failure.

Name: Battery Abuse Test Chamber with Gas Scrubber
SKU: NMX-BAC-36

A safety test for a battery is a test to destruction. A cell is shorted, crushed, pierced, overcharged or heated until it fails, to prove that it fails safely. What comes out is heat, flame, particles and a toxic gas.

So the chamber has a bigger job than the test. It contains the failure, puts it out, extracts the gas and scrubs it, and only then lets anyone open the door.

Discuss an abuse test chamber Capability note (PDF)

A battery abuse test chamber: a heavy sealed grey steel chamber with a closed door that has a small round window, a camera on a bracket beside it, a relief panel on its roof, and a duct leading to a tall grey scrubber tower and its fan, and no people

Fig · 01 — A battery abuse test chamber: a sealed grey steel chamber with a heavy door, a small window and a camera, a relief panel on its roof, and a duct leading to a scrubber tower and its fan — illustrative render.

The abuse

short, crush, nail, heatapplied from a control desk

The chamber

sealed and relievedbuilt for the worst article

The gas

extracted and scrubbedcleaned before it is released

The record

logged on one clockvoltage, heat, pressure, gas, video

Status

engineered to orderno chamber yet delivered

ISO 9001ISO 14001IEC 62619 industrial battery safety referenceIEC 62660-3 vehicle cell safety referenceUN 38.3 transport test reference

Overview

Why the chamber is built for the failure, and not for the test.

Because the test is easy to run and the failure is hard to survive. A chamber that only holds the battery is a table with a door.

Fig · 02 — The chamber in one picture: the chamber, the abuse and the record in order, with the extraction and the making safe standing behind them.

A safety test is not over when the battery fails. It is over when the room is safe.

What the chamber is for

It lets a battery be pushed to failure on purpose, so that its makers can see whether it fails safely. It takes a cell, a module or a pack, and applies one of the abuse tests: a short circuit, an overcharge, a crush, a nail, or a heating ramp.

Why the failure is the hard part

A failing lithium-ion battery can give off heat and flame, hot particles, and a gas that is both flammable and toxic. Its electrolyte can produce hydrogen fluoride, which is highly toxic. The chamber has to be ready for all of it at once.

Why it is sealed, and still has a relief

The chamber is closed before the test starts, so that nothing escapes into the room. But a sealed box that heats and gasses builds pressure, so it has a relief path that opens in a chosen direction, and a shell built for what the worst article can do.

Why there is a scrubber

The gas cannot simply be blown outside. The extraction draws it out of the chamber and through a filter and a wet scrubber, where an alkaline liquid neutralises the acid gases, such as hydrogen fluoride, before the air is released.

Why it is run from a desk

Nobody is in the room. The abuse is applied from a control desk, and the test is watched through a thick window and by camera.

Why the record is the product

Cell voltage, temperature, pressure, gas and video are logged on one clock. The order of events is then known, from the first rise in temperature to the vent.

The test

Mount, seal, abuse, watch, extract and make safe.

Six steps in a fixed order. The last two are the ones that are missed, because they begin after the battery has already failed.

FIG · 02BATTERY ABUSE TEST CHAMBER WITH GAS SCRUBBER · MOUNT / SEAL / ABUSE / WATCH / EXTRACT / MAKE SAFE — THE TEST ENDS WHEN THE ROOM IS SAFE

The step a table-top design leaves out is the last one. A battery that has stopped venting can still be hot enough to start again.

Fig · 03 — Three ways to abuse a battery: electrically, by joining or overdriving its terminals; mechanically, by crushing or piercing it; and thermally, by heating it — a drawing of the idea, with no values.

1 · Mount

The article is fixed on the test table, wired to its instruments and fitted with the sensors it needs.

2 · Seal

The door is closed and locked, the extraction is running, and the chamber is confirmed sealed before anything is applied.

3 · Abuse

The chosen abuse is applied from the control desk, one test at a time: a short, an overcharge, a crush, a nail or heat.

4 · Watch

Voltage, temperature, pressure, gas and video are recorded on one clock, and the chamber's own limits are watched.

5 · Extract

The gas is drawn out through the filter and the scrubber, so that the chamber and the outside air both stay clean.

6 · Make safe

Suppression and purge run until the chamber is cool and the gas is gone. Only then does the interlock release the door.

Work content

What the chamber contains, element by element.

Read it as a checklist: a chamber missing a row will be corrected later, usually by an incident that nobody wanted.

The inside of a walk-in test chamber seen through its open doors: a plain steel test table with an unmarked black battery module on it, a flat crush plate above it on an actuator, a pointed rod actuator at the side, and no people

Fig · 04 — Inside a walk-in chamber, seen through its open doors: a plain steel test table with an unmarked black battery module on it, a flat crush plate above it on an actuator, and a nail actuator at the side — illustrative render.

Element	What it does	What matters
Chamber shell	contains heat, flame and pressure	built for the worst article, not the average cell
Pressure relief	lets pressure out in a chosen direction	opens into the extraction path, never into the room
Window & cameras	let the test be watched	thick, protected and kept clear
Test table & fixtures	hold the article	stand up to the abuse and can be changed between tests
Abuse actuators	apply the crush and the nail	driven remotely, one at a time
Electrical test supply	drives overcharge and forced discharge, and applies the short	protected, and cut off by the chamber's own limits
Heating system	brings the article up to temperature	ramped under control
Sensors & data acquisition	record voltage, temperature, pressure, gas and video	fast enough for a failure, on one clock
Gas extraction	draws the gas out of the chamber	runs before the test and after it
Filter & wet scrubber	remove particles and neutralise acid gas	the used liquid is drained and handled as waste
Fire suppression & purge	put the fire out and clear the gas	works without the door being opened
Interlocks	keep the door shut and stop the test	door, pressure, gas and temperature conditions
Control desk	runs the test from outside	away from the chamber, with the video in front of the operator
Testing & documentation	prove the chamber	every function proved before the first battery goes in

The element people forget is a liquid. A scrubber gives clean air by making a liquid dirty, so the used liquid has to be measured, drained and handled as waste, not forgotten.

Fig · 05 — One chamber, three hazards it is built against: heat and flame, particles and debris, and toxic and flammable gas.

Full specification — expand

Chamber	A sealed steel chamber built for the worst article the customer will test; a pressure-relief path; an observation window and cameras; a test table and fixtures; remotely driven actuators for crush and nail penetration; an electrical test supply for short circuit, overcharge and forced discharge; a controlled heating system; sensors and data acquisition; gas extraction; a filter and wet scrubber; fire suppression and purge; interlocks; a control desk; and testing and documentation before handover
The One Idea	The test is meant to make the battery fail, so the chamber is built for the failure, and the test ends when the room is safe, not when the battery fails
Why the Failure Is Hard	A failing lithium-ion battery can give off heat and flame, hot particles, and a gas that is both flammable and toxic, including hydrogen fluoride from its electrolyte, so the chamber must be ready for all of it at once
Why Sealed and Relieved	The chamber is closed before the test so that nothing escapes into the room, and it has a pressure-relief path so that a sealed box that heats and gasses does not build pressure it cannot hold
Why a Scrubber	The gas is drawn out through a filter and a wet scrubber in which an alkaline liquid neutralises acid gases such as hydrogen fluoride before the air is released, and the used liquid is handled as waste
Why Remote	The abuse is applied from a control desk and the test is watched through a window and by camera, so that nobody is in the room
The Record	Cell voltage, temperature, pressure, gas and video are logged on one clock, so the order of events is known from the first rise in temperature to the vent
Standards	IEC 62619 is the public reference for the safety of industrial lithium cells and batteries, IEC 62660-3 for the safety of cells for electric road vehicles, UN 38.3 for the transport tests, and ISO/IEC 17025 for calibration. Between them they describe the abuse tests this chamber is built to carry out. Which tests are run, and their pass criteria, are set by the customer and the standard they work to. Acceptance of the finished chamber rests with the customer and their inspection authority
Configurations	A cell chamber for single cells on a bench, a module and pack chamber for larger articles and heavier abuse, and a test bay, a room-sized bay run from a control room
Scope Boundary	This is the chamber that takes a battery to failure. It is not the cycler and conditioning system that measures a battery's performance and ageing (see EV battery test system), not a pressure vessel test to destruction of a gas cylinder (see burst chamber for hydrogen cylinder testing) and not a weather chamber (see climatic and environmental test chambers)
Status	Neometrix engineers battery abuse test chambers to order, and no delivered battery abuse test chamber is claimed.

Configurations

One method, three sizes of chamber.

The steps, the interlocks, the record and the scrubbing are shared. What changes is the size of the article, and so the size of everything around it.

Cell chamber

Single cells, on a bench

A compact chamber for single cells, with a short-circuit, crush and nail fixture, for a laboratory that studies how a cell fails.

Module and pack chamber

Larger articles, heavier abuse

A larger chamber with heavier actuators and a bigger relief and extraction, for modules and packs.

Test bay

A room-sized bay, run from a control room

A bay with its own extraction and scrubber, for full packs and for tests of whether a failure spreads from one cell to the next.

Fig · 06 — Three sizes of chamber, one method: a cell chamber, a module and pack chamber, or a test bay.

And the part that is not equipment at all, yet decides all three: the test plan — the written list of which abuse tests are run, in what order, with what stop conditions, and what the room must look like before the door may be opened.

Where it is used

Wherever a battery has to be shown to fail safely.

The common thread is a battery that will one day fail, and a maker or a buyer who wants to know how before it does.

Battery and pack developers

Where a new cell or pack design is tried to failure before it is released.

Independent test laboratories

Where the abuse tests of the standards are run for other people's batteries.

Research groups

Where the way a battery fails, and what it gives off, is the subject of study.

Supplier qualification

Where cells from a new supplier are proved against the abuse tests before they are used.

FAQ

Common questions.

Longer answers, for readers who want the reasoning.

Q · 01 Why test a battery until it fails?

Because a battery that only ever works tells you nothing about what happens when it does not. The major lithium-ion safety standards describe a set of abuse scenarios: an external short circuit, an overcharge, a forced discharge, a crush, a nail through the cell, and heating. Each one pushes a cell toward failure on purpose, to see whether it fails safely, for example without fire, or whether its own protection stops the event first. The result is a pass, a fail, or a description of how it failed. That is why the test is run in a chamber built for the failure, and not on an open bench.

Q · 02 What comes out of a failing battery, and why does it matter for the chamber?

Three things, and they arrive together. Heat and flame, which the shell and the suppression must take. Hot particles and debris, which a catch and a filter must hold. And gas: the vent gas of a failing lithium-ion cell is flammable, and it is toxic, because the electrolyte can produce hydrogen fluoride, which is highly toxic. Published measurements show that a large amount can be produced for a given battery energy. This page states no figure, because it depends on the battery and the failure. What matters for the chamber is that all three must be answered at once, and that the largest article the customer will test sets the size of the answer.

Q · 03 Why must the chamber be sealed, and yet have a pressure relief?

Sealed, so that the gas and the smoke cannot escape into the room where the test is controlled. Relieved, because a sealed box in which a battery is heating and gassing will build pressure, and a chamber that cannot let pressure out will eventually let it out in the wrong place. So the chamber has a relief path that opens at a set pressure, in a chosen direction, into the extraction path and not into the room. Test chambers built for this work commonly carry pressure-relief vents, a window with a camera, and a fire extinguishing system for the same reason. The shell itself is built for the worst article, not for the average cell.

Q · 04 What does the scrubber do, and what is left over?

The extraction fan draws the gas out of the chamber, through a filter that catches the particles, and into a wet scrubber. In the scrubber the gas meets a liquid that contains an alkali, such as sodium hydroxide, which neutralises the acid gases, hydrogen fluoride among them, before the air is released. What is left over is the liquid, which is now a waste that contains what it removed. So the scrubber circuit includes the means to measure the liquid, drain it and hand it over as waste, and the air leaving the scrubber is monitored. A scrubber that is not looked after is a liquid that has stopped working.

Q · 05 Is this the same as the EV battery test system page, or the burst chamber?

No, and the differences are worth stating precisely. The EV battery test system page is about cyclers, ageing, impedance and conditioning: it measures how a battery performs and wears, and it mentions the abuse tests only as part of the standards it works to. It does not crush a battery, pierce it, or handle what comes out of it. The burst chamber for hydrogen cylinder testing page is a pressure test of a gas cylinder to destruction. The climatic and environmental test chambers page is a weather chamber. This page does not replace any of them, and it does not claim what they claim a second time.

Q · 06 Has Neometrix built one of these?

We would rather answer this plainly than let a page imply otherwise. Neometrix engineers battery abuse test chambers to order, and no delivered battery abuse test chamber is claimed. What stands behind the offer is adjacent: Neometrix engineers the cycling, safety chain and fire interface of a battery laboratory (see the EV battery test system page), a chamber built to contain a failure under pressure (see the burst chamber for hydrogen cylinder testing page), and conditioning chambers (see the climatic and environmental test chambers page). The actuators, heaters, sensors, gas analysers, fans and scrubber packing are proven catalogue items and are chosen with the customer, not invented. What Neometrix engineers is the chamber, the relief and containment, the extraction and scrubber circuit, the fixtures, the interlocks, the data record and the documentation. So the honest position is that the chamber is engineered to order, the neighbouring disciplines are in the building, and the first chamber of this exact kind will be built around the customer's batteries and tests rather than lifted off a shelf.

Q · 07 Which standards apply, and who decides which tests are run?

IEC 62619 is the public reference for the safety of secondary lithium cells and batteries for industrial use, IEC 62660-3 is the public reference for the safety of lithium-ion cells for electric road vehicles, and UN 38.3 is the public reference for the tests that govern transport. Between them they describe the abuse tests this chamber is built to carry out. ISO/IEC 17025 is the public reference for calibration. None of them decides which tests a particular customer runs, in what order, or what counts as a pass. That is set by the customer and by the standard they work to, and this page prints none of it. Acceptance of the finished chamber, including its proving tests before handover, rests with the customer and whatever inspection authority they name.

Q · 08 What do you need from us to quote?

Six things, and the first one sizes everything. First, the articles: the cells, modules or packs to be tested, their chemistry, and above all the largest article, because it sets the size of the chamber, the relief and the extraction. Second, the tests: which abuse tests, and the standards they come from. Third, the measurements: which signals, and whether gas analysis is wanted. Fourth, the configuration: a cell chamber, a module and pack chamber, or a test bay. Fifth, the site: the power, water and drainage for the scrubber, the exhaust route, and where the control desk can stand. Sixth, the documents the customer will want at handover. From that we come back with a layout drawing, a written test plan you can check, and a budgetary price.

The neighbouring test systems, and how they differ from this one.

Three neighbours in the same family of battery, chamber and containment test equipment.

↗ Performance, not failure

EV Battery Test System

Regenerative cell and pack cyclers, impedance, drive-cycle replay and chambers, measuring how a battery performs and ages.

↗ A different failure

Burst Chamber for Hydrogen Cylinder Testing

A chamber built to contain a gas cylinder taken to destruction under pressure.

↗ Weather on demand

Climatic & Environmental Test Chambers

Chambers that hold temperature and humidity on an article, from reach-in to walk-in.

Browse all Neometrix product lines.

Get a quotation

Tell us the batteries, the tests,
and the largest article you will fail.

The projects desk replies within two working days with a layout drawing, a written test plan you can check, and a budgetary quotation. Write to [email protected] or use the form.

Enquire — abuse test chamber Capability sheet (PDF) +91 7777 876 876

ISO 9001 / 14001 ENGINEERED-TO-ORDER CLASS — BATTERY ABUSE TEST CHAMBER WITH GAS SCRUBBER MOUNT · SEAL · ABUSE · WATCH · EXTRACT · MAKE SAFE — THE TEST ENDS WHEN THE ROOM IS SAFE ENGINEERED IN NOIDA · INDIA