Lithium ion battery tech – your questions answered at AIMExpo
The piece we carried last month by Martin Human, CEO and Chief Technical Officer for TecMate- the manufacturer of the OptiMate brand of battery chargers and diagnostic / maintenance tools –“ Lithium Battery Technology Headed for Center Stage” – got quite a reaction. What follows are the salient points from a follow-up interview I did with Martin about some of the reactions the piece got and the advice that he and his team will be offering from their AIMExpo booth …
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In last month’ s piece, it was the remarks concerning lithium ion battery technology being destined to eventually become standard battery technology for most motorcycle manufacturers on most models that appears to have got people’ s attention. Without even speaking about its importance of the future evolution of electric bikes as part of the mix, the impact that OE replacement of conventional lead acid and AGM battery technology with lithium ion technology will have on motorcycle starting, onboard power opportunities and battery maintenance issues will require the motorcycle service sector to embrace a reboot of its habits and knowledge base. It will represent a change that will probably be at least, if not more, as significant than that caused in the V-twin sector by the advent of fuel injection and stricter emissions and noise regulations. As Martin said to me following publication of the last edition:“ Now, with the OEMs entering, batteries will have to meet specific standards. The problem is, those standards are being taken from generic lithium battery standards, as there is no specific standard as yet for 12.8V lithium starter batteries”. One of the issues that Martin and others operating in battery and battery-related markets bemoan is the low knowledge base and widespread misunderstandings and conflicting opinions there are about lithium technology. He told me about a paper he was asked to present to a class at a technical training college recently:“ The
Counter tester
Words by Robin Bradley robin @ dealer-world. com
LiFePO4 battery protection
biggest problem is that very few people are aware of just how important it is to embrace a full and proper understanding of just how different the technology is – as things stand, a lot of batteries, and even bikes, are going to get damaged or destroyed before the market wakes up.”
The Technology
“ The technology in use as starter batteries is Lithium Iron Phosphate, also known as Lithium Ferrous Phosphate, chemical formula LiFePO4, abbreviated as ' LFP '. It is made up of 4 x 3.2V cells( nominal voltage, like a 12V is made up of 6 x 2V cells). Nominal essentially means the base voltage after a full discharge, or approximately 10 % charge level. It can be safely charged to 4 x 3.6V( 14.4V), with the absolute maximum at 14.6V.“ It is a type of lithium ion battery( Li-Ion), but only one of many Li-Ion technologies- both rechargeable and non-rechargeable( primary). A good rule of thumb is that LFP / LiFePO4 4-cell batteries are used as starter batteries in power sport applications, and in nothing else.“ A lithium battery will last longest if always operated within the range of 30 to 95 % of charge- for a LFP battery that is between 13V and 14.4V.
The three best ways to kill a lithium battery
Martin told me that in order to galvanize the attention of the class he titled his presentation‘ How to kill a lithium battery and burn out your bike’.“ That got their attention,” Martin said.
Charge it too much …“ The simplest and most reliable way to kill a lithium battery is simply to charge it too much. Charge it
LiFePO4 battery preparation for dealers
above 14.6V, and what occurs is rapid cell damage, causing a short circuit in the weakest cell, which then rapidly increases voltage across the others and it becomes a domino effect.“ All power entering the battery is converted as heat until the run-away temperature of 270 ° C is reached within the battery, at which point the battery goes into a self-consume state, in other words, it burns itself out and possibly takes everything with it – not least the bike.” To make that battery live longer, if you ' re fitting it as an aftermarket replacement into a motorcycle, check the charge voltage of the motorcycle with the original lead acid in place- if it remains at 14.4 / 14.5V or lower( at 2000rpm or higher), then the bike qualifies for a lithium battery, otherwise you are better off simply buying a better quality lead acid, or better still, just look after it better.
Discharge it really low Lithium battery destruction technique # 2 … let it discharge to the point where it is at least below 10V( but the lower the better) and then jump start it( or bump start the bike).“ What happens next,” says Martin,“ is that as the
Martin Human, CEO and Chief Technology Officer for TecMate says:“ Lithium Iron Phosphate is the safest and only lithium battery technology used in modern SLI( starter-lighting-ignition) batteries, but there is a widespread confusion about how they charge- confusion that will result in burned out batteries and motorcycles!”
58 AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER- SEPTEMBER 2017 www. AMDchampionship. com