The electronic gizmos that power our digital world seem to grow smaller with every iteration. That’s helpful when it comes to designing smartphones that fit in your pocket, but it can also cause complications like ultra-dense batteries that can overheat or even catch fire in transit.
A Connecticut company says it has come up with a way to make transport safer: a shipping wrap designed to suppress and control fires caused by battery explosions. PACT (Packing and Crating Technologies) LLC of Waterbury, Connecticut, was recently awarded a patent for the invention, which it says is a paper-based recyclable wrap solution that exceeds lithium-ion battery packaging performance standards.
PACT says its "Thermo Shield" wrap automatically cools the internal environment of a corrugated container, preventing damage to the outside shipping container, keeping fumes or gases from escaping, and limiting external oxygen supply. According to the company, its wrap can suppress and control lithium battery “thermal runaway” and fire propagation at temperatures up to 800°C and restrict the temperature outside the wrap itself to 60°C.
Those capabilities are particularly important given that most cells and battery packs are produced in Asia, leading to long transit times when shipped to Western Hemisphere customers, according to PACT President Rodger Mort. “Thermo Shield’s one-of-a-kind design allows it to suppress serious thermal runaway incidents, protecting freight transporters and the cargo they’re tasked with delivering,” he said in a release.
