Building a Solid Safety Barrier: The Core Role of Lab Companion's Thermal Shock Chambers in New Energy Power Battery Certification

Against the backdrop of advancing global energy transition and steady progress toward the "dual carbon" goals, the new energy vehicle and energy storage industries are experiencing explosive growth and embarking on a fast track of high-quality development. As the "power heart" of the new energy industry, the safety, reliability and service life of power batteries directly determine the market competitiveness of end products, and are even more critical to public safety and the foundation of industrial development. To this end, domestic and foreign mandatory and recommended standards such as GB 38031, IEC 62660, and UL 1642 have been issued successively, establishing stringent "safety access thresholds" and "performance evaluation yardsticks" for power batteries. Among these, thermal shock testing, as a core experiment to verify batteries' environmental adaptability to extreme temperature fluctuations, structural integrity and safety stability, can accurately expose potential safety hazards caused by mismatched thermal expansion and contraction of components such as electrodes, separators and packaging shells. It is an indispensable key link in the R&D, certification and mass production of power batteries. With forward-looking technological layout, deeply customized testing solutions and profound industry expertise, Lab Companion has become a core partner of leading enterprises in the new energy industry chain, jointly building a solid testing and verification barrier for the safety and reliability of power batteries, and escorting the high-quality development of the industry.

Standards as the Guideline: Stringent Core Dimensions of New Energy Power Battery Testing

The power battery testing and certification system is both complex and rigorous, and thermal shock testing is a key stress test to measure batteries' environmental adaptability and define their safety boundaries. It runs through the entire process of battery R&D, certification and mass production, and all standards impose extremely stringent requirements on testing conditions, equipment precision and data reliability.

1. Mandatory Assessment Items in National Safety Standards

China's mandatory national standard GB 38031-2020 Safety Requirements for Traction Batteries for Electric Vehicles clearly lists temperature cycling, seawater immersion and other items as core testing projects. Temperature cycling mainly simulates the slow temperature changes in daily vehicle use, while thermal shock testing, as a more stringent verification method, can achieve rapid temperature conversion from -40℃ to +85℃. It is mostly used in the battery R&D stage to accurately verify the tightness, insulation and structural stability of batteries under extreme temperature fluctuations, and detect fatal safety hazards such as thermal runaway in advance to uphold the bottom line of power battery safety.

2. Core Verification Items for Reliability and Service Life

International general specifications such as the UN38.3 transportation standard in the Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods - Manual of Tests and Criteria and the IEC 62660 performance standard for lithium-ion traction batteries for electric road vehicles all include thermal shock and rapid temperature change testing as mandatory items. By simulating extreme temperature fluctuation scenarios in the full cycle of battery transportation, storage and use, these tests comprehensively evaluate key indicators such as capacity attenuation, internal resistance change and functional integrity of batteries, ensuring the stable operation of power batteries under various complex working conditions and guaranteeing their service life and operational reliability.

3. Essential Passport for International Market Access

For power batteries to enter the global market, they must meet stringent certification requirements of corresponding regions: access to the North American market requires UL 1642 (lithium battery cells) or UL 1973 (energy storage systems) certification, and the EU, Japan, South Korea and other regions also have corresponding special testing standards. All types of certifications clearly include temperature cycling and thermal shock testing requirements for battery cells and modules. Only by passing high-standard testing and verification can enterprises obtain the "entry ticket" to the international market and expand their global layout.

Lab Companion Customized Solutions: Professional Tools to Solve Pain Points in Battery Safety Testing

New energy power battery testing is characterized by high risk, high precision and high stringency, and ordinary general-purpose testing equipment can no longer meet industry demands. Focusing on the core pain points of battery testing and deeply engaged in technological R&D, Lab Companion has launched high-safety, high-precision thermal shock testing solutions tailored exclusively for power batteries, which are fully applicable to the testing needs of all categories including cells, modules and PACKs, building a dual barrier for testing safety and data accuracy.

1. Intrinsically Safe Design to Build a Firewall for Testing Safety

During power battery testing, short circuits, liquid leakage, thermal runaway and other safety risks are likely to occur due to internal defects. Lab Companion's special thermal shock chambers for batteries adopt multiple intrinsically safe protection designs to eliminate potential safety hazards from the source and fully protect the laboratory environment and operators.

• Explosion-Proof and Corrosion-Resistant Structure: The inner tank and air duct of the test chamber are made of high-quality anti-static and corrosion-resistant materials, and an enhanced explosion-proof reinforced design is available as an option. The special pressure relief outlet is directionally guided to a safe area, which can effectively control risks and avoid the spread of safety accidents even in case of sudden abnormalities.

• Intelligent Global Monitoring: Equipped with multiple high-precision sensors to monitor the concentration of smoke and flammable gas (optional) in the chamber in real time, and deeply linked with the intelligent fire protection system. Once abnormal data is detected, the equipment can immediately cut off the test power automatically and start the internal spray or inert gas protection device (customized configuration) simultaneously, realizing a second-level risk response.

• Special Safety Accessories: Equipped with customized insulated and high-temperature resistant battery trays and fixtures, matched with special anti-short circuit and anti-arc electrical connection interfaces to standardize the test wiring process, eliminate wiring hidden dangers, and ensure the entire testing process is safe and secure.

2. Precise Temperature Control and Uniform Temperature Field to Ensure the Validity of Test Results

Power battery testing has extremely high requirements for temperature field uniformity and temperature control precision, and even a slight temperature deviation will affect the accuracy of test results. Relying on core hard technologies, Lab Companion's thermal shock chambers achieve precise stress application, ensuring that every battery cell and every module is in a consistent testing environment and guaranteeing authentic and effective test results.

• High-Uniformity Temperature Field: Adopting a three-dimensional circulating air duct optimized by CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) design to break the pain point of uneven temperature field in traditional equipment. Within the wide temperature range of -40℃ to +85℃, the temperature uniformity of the test area is accurately controlled within ≤±2℃, avoiding inconsistent testing conditions of single battery cells caused by temperature differences, and ensuring the consistency and reference value of test results.

• Wide Temperature Range and Rapid Thermal Shock: The equipment can cover an ultra-wide temperature range from -70℃ to +150℃, fully adapting to the testing needs of all categories such as low-power consumer batteries, high-power automotive-grade batteries and energy storage batteries. Equipped with high-efficiency cooling and heating dual systems, it realizes rapid temperature conversion and fast stabilization, strictly conforms to the temperature profile requirements specified in various standards, and restores real extreme temperature fluctuation scenarios.

• Full-Process Data Traceability: Automatically records core data such as test temperature, duration and equipment operating status throughout the process. It can be externally connected to a BMS system or data acquisition equipment synchronously to collect key parameters such as battery voltage and cell temperature in a linked manner, forming a complete and traceable test data chain, providing authoritative and solid data support for product certification and R&D optimization.

3. Covering the Full Life Cycle and Adapting to Diverse Testing Scenarios

Lab Companion's thermal shock testing solutions are deeply tailored to the full life cycle testing needs of power batteries, comprehensively helping enterprises control product quality and empowering the entire process from R&D to mass production.

• Cell R&D Verification: Conduct reliability screening and failure analysis for battery cells with new material systems such as solid electrolytes and high-nickel cathodes, assisting enterprises in overcoming technical bottlenecks, optimizing cell design and improving the efficiency of new product R&D.

• Module and PACK Testing: Carry out thermal shock testing on battery modules and complete battery packs to comprehensively evaluate the performance of structural connection stability, thermal management system efficiency, insulation performance and BMS function under extreme temperature fluctuations, verifying the reliability of the entire package product.

• Production Line Quality Screening: Before battery packs leave the factory, conduct environmental stress screening through short-term high-intensity thermal shock to accurately eliminate products with potential process defects, strictly control ex-factory quality, reduce after-sales risks in the market, and build a solid product quality barrier.

Beyond Equipment Supply: Building a Full-Chain Battery Safety and Reliability System

Lab Companion has always abandoned the positioning of a single equipment supplier. Based on the development needs of the new energy industry, it is committed to providing customers with full-chain and systematic testing services, creating an integrated solution of "equipment + solutions + services" to deeply empower the upgrading of customers' testing systems.

• Professional Solution Consultation: With years of in-depth industry experience, we help customers accurately interpret complex domestic and foreign standards such as GB, IEC and UL, and customize a full-process verification plan from cells to PACKs, from safety verification to reliability testing, solving industry pain points such as difficult standard interpretation and chaotic plan planning.

• Joint Calibration and Optimization: Work hand in hand with enterprise customers and third-party authoritative testing institutions to deeply participate in the establishment and optimization of testing methods, ensuring that testing conditions not only meet the mandatory requirements of standards, but also accurately stimulate potential product defects, improving the pertinence and effectiveness of testing.

• Smart Laboratory Integration: The equipment can be seamlessly connected to the laboratory management system, realizing the whole-process digital management of test task issuance, automatic data collection and test report generation, greatly improving testing efficiency, simplifying testing processes, and ensuring data quality and management standardization.

Conclusion: Uphold the Safety Bottom Line with Professionalism, Protect the Energy Future with Ingenuity

The safety and reliability of power batteries are the core lifeline for the steady and long-term development of new energy vehicles and energy storage industries, as well as the fundamental guarantee for the high-quality development of the industry. With a reverence for the safety bottom line, Lab Companion is deeply engaged in the field of battery testing. With profound industry insights, core technical strength and stringent quality control, we create professional, reliable and safe thermal shock testing solutions. What we provide is not only a testing equipment that meets standards, but also a heavy safety commitment, an unbreakable quality guarantee, and a responsibility to boost industrial development.

Choosing Lab Companion means choosing a professional partner that deeply understands the risks and challenges of battery testing, knows the industry and meets customer needs. In the future, Lab Companion will continue to deepen technological innovation and product iteration, build a solid safety barrier for every power battery put on the market with the most stringent testing standards and professional testing equipment, and join hands with industrial chain partners to promote the high-quality and sustainable development of the new energy industry, injecting solid and reliable "core strength" into the future of global clean energy.