In light of the recently ATSB report that identified an Australian Certified UAV Operator at the cause of a LiPO fire onboard an airline flight, I've decided to release some footage from our internal staff training video that shows what happens when LiPOs go up in smoke.
In the video we set off some LiPOs by themselves, some LiPOs in two different types of LiPO safe bags. Needless to say anything in the vicinity of the LiPOs will catch fire, so whilst the first test doesn't show flames, just imagine it inside your suitcase full of flammable materials.
What was surprising during one of the tests, one LiPO bag ended up catching fire! The other LiPO bag contained the fire as it was designed to do.
Please don't try this at home kids, we had fire extinguishers at the ready and there were no combustible or flammable materials in the vicinity.
Comments
@Andrew: The directors of the firm hired to do the music after the other people had been sacked who sacked the first team, were sacked themselves at the last moment. The music was completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute by some llama called.... "Ralph"?
That video reminds of an incident a few weeks ago when I'd been flying with a friend.
After a few flight's he'd started putting things away including the spent lipo's which he had in a bum bag. Without a second thought he dropped a small screwdriver into the bag and somehow it shorted the 3s lipo in the bag. The strange hissing noise, and smoke pouring from the bag soon got our attention.... as well as him yelling "get it off, get it off"
Thankfully no flames, but the lipo was a gonner, the bumbag had a hole melted in the bottom as did the front of his jeans. Needless to say he no longer keeps spent lipo's quite so close to his crotch any more.
Aside from the scary, cautionary spectacle of someone with bare legs and sneakers kicking a burning lipo and breathing its fumes, this is a meaningless and misleading video. It merely demonstrates (no thanks to the echo chamber followed by what may be the worst music ever heard on the Pacific Rim) something that most all of us who have been using LiPo's for years already know: Lipo "bags" are a dangerous, unreliable gimmick, even when the battery is barely burning (as these are). On top of not being such a great idea in the first place there are indeed Lipo Bags on the market that would barely handle popcorn-making duty. Do not rely in any way on these things, folks, no matter where they come from. The only thing they are good for is transporting, in your line of sight, a damaged Lipo from the field; if the LiPo starts to burn, it being in the bag makes it relatively easy to get it out of the car. But that's it. If you are charging LiPo's in such bags at home and wandering off, make sure your fire insurance is paid up.
Overral is a nice test. unfortunately needs to be improved to be a more scientific test.
To obtain some valuable data the test should be conducted in a more controlled environment.
Lipo's should be all the same cell count and capacity ( that should be specified ).
Test should be conducted on 3 states of charge ( 3.0V - 3.7V - 4.2V Cell )
2 different ignition techniques ( Short circuit and Nail )
Lipo bags should be tested monitoring the external temperature with a Thermal infrared camera.
Lipo bags manufacturers should be published.
Is a bit of effort to do a test like this, but will give as a more detailed picture of what are the real dangers of Lipo's and will help us to mitigate the risks.
Martin, it doesn't matter how the short starts, the test was to see the effectiveness of the lipo bag from preventing the spread of the fire.
That is not a good test. Who would put a punchured(damaged) lipo into a bag? Should be done with the batteries in the 3 states of charge (low,storage and charged) and done with a short circuit. Wacking with a nail is not it.
I hope you didn't pay money for the music...