Media Release by UL Solutions
UL Solutions, a global leader in applied safety science, today announced its new test method for electric vehicle (EV) battery enclosure material screening, Torch and Grit (TaG).
Battery enclosures, and the material they are made from, play a critical role in electric vehicle safety. The TaG test method incorporates small-scale testing that helps predict material performance in a thermal runaway event.
EV batteries typically cover the entire base of a vehicle. Materials used to house these batteries must withstand thermal runaway stresses. TaG simulates high temperatures and mechanical impact stresses in a battery thermal runaway event to rank materials for battery enclosures.
As the automotive industry looks to decrease the weight of many components, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) are increasingly changing battery enclosure materials to plastics and composites. OEMs must choose an appropriate enclosure material before building a costly prototype to minimize expenses and avoid potential safety concerns. By ranking materials, TaG can reduce the number of materials needed to undergo large-scale prototyping and validation tests, which can be costly and time-consuming for OEMs.
UL 2596, Test Method for Thermal and Mechanical Performance of Battery Enclosure Materials, standardizes test methods for evaluating EV battery enclosure materials. The TaG test method is estimated to be published as an addition to UL 2596 in 2023.
