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"?
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...