Quality and Safety Issues of Counterfeit Lithium-Ion Batteries

Masoud Rostami-Angas is an accomplished engineer with a diverse background in reliability engineering and research. With almost four years at Ansys, he currently serves as Lead Reliability Engineer. Prior to this, he was a Senior Reliability Engineer at the same company. Before joining Ansys, he worked as an R&D Engineer at Creare for three years. Masoud's academic journey includes a Ph.D. in Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering from Northeastern University, where he also worked as a Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher. Additionally, he served as a Research and Teaching Assistant during his doctoral studies. He holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tehran. With nearly a decade of experience in academia and industry, Masoud brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to his current role.
 

Presentation Abstract

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries continue to transform the consumer electronics, mobility, and energy storage sectors, and the applications and demands for batteries keep growing.

Widespread demand of Li-ion cells and batteries on one hand and the supply limitations and costs on the other have attracted profiteering through illicit copying and counterfeiting of cells in the supply chain that could affect quality, safety, and reliability of batteries. High-quality material and safety mechanisms are needed in Li-ion products for protection against off-nominal conditions. Overcharging, overdischarging, extreme temperatures, and external or internal shorts are some of the off-nominal conditions that products may experience in use and which may result in thermal runaway and fire.

Safety and performance of counterfeit products cannot be verified, and hence, may pose serious risks. Manufacturers of low-quality and counterfeit cells typically lack the technical knowledge, experience, and understanding required for proper quality control, safety, and shipping. The materials used in the cells are often of inferior quality, the cells are poorly designed and assembled, and the cells may contain contaminants.

Counterfeit products may not be indistinguishable by visual inspection when compared to the high- quality and authentic original equipment manufacturer (OEM) products. Careful examinations using performance characterization, destructive physical analysis (DPA), chemical analysis, and safety tests may be needed to verify counterfeit products.

In the present work, the compromise in performance and safety with low-quality and counterfeit Li- ion batteries is studied. Lab and research examples will be provided on the performance and safety of low-quality and counterfeit Li-ion batteries. Recommendations are provided to identify and avoid counterfeit and low-quality li-ion cells and batteries.

Dr. Diganta Das

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Karlie Severinson

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