I eventually found the email I was talking about.
From: David Cowperthwaite <d>
To: Tim Crumpton <tim>
Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 10:22:45 +0100
Subject: RE: FW: lithium berlingo
Hi Tim
HiPower have answered most of your questions
Sunny writes
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your kind email. Please see the following reply as per Tim's
questions:
Q3)Do cells need binding? how tight?
How to commission cells upon arrival (initial charge)? one-by-one or all
together?
A3)Cells need binding (connectors, iron bar, adhesive tape). We will bind the
batteries with different bindings according to different battery packs. We
will divide the full packs into several groups. Then tell you how to connect
them. For this one, we have the following questions:
1) Do you put the full battery pack in one place or several places? How much
battery do you put in such several places? How much space for such several
places? We need the specific information for this. As you know, we can
assemble the battery pack as per your requirements for the size.
2) Be sure to charge the new battery fully before using for the first time
.The battery will reach its max capacity after 3-5 times of full charging
and discharging.
So you'd better purchase the balance charger with battery pack as soon as
possible. Then we can send the battery pack together with the charger.
I sent this back to Dave last month. His response is below:
from David Cowperthwaite <d>
to Timothy Crumpton <timpootle>
date Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 7:17 PM
subject RE: Clamping cells together
Hi Tim unfortunately Sunny now has left Hi Power we are now dealing with Amy. Let me check out the <clamping> plates for you, Kind regards Dave
So now who do we believe? This idea that 'you can clamp the cells if you want them to look nice' doesn't sound right to me. I was copied into an email exchange between Amy from Hipower, Dave from TYCTrack, and our own audia2ev, where Amy said her technicians were saying just what milo said to you, Peter. I guess milo is the technician Amy was talking to.
On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 9:37 AM, David Cowperthwaite <d> wrote:
Hi Simon please find below the reply from Hi power hope this helps,
basically so long as the pack is secure you should be ok , your early reply
would be appreciated with some dimensions before and after Kind regards Dave
Hi Dave,
Nice day to you!
This is Amy from China Hipower New Energy Group.
It is my honor to follow up the business.
About the question you and Simon mentioned ,we check with our technician
and we'd like to reply to you as follows.
The shell of our battery is made up of plastic.
when charging or discharging,the battery may appear a slight swelling.,which
is normal.
it won't affect the good performance of the battery.
if you hope it looks nicer,you can clamp the battery pack in moderate way
and provent overexerting.
in addition,if some clear photos and more relative information (such as how
many cells appear swelling,any other bad phenomenon ?etc)
could be provided ,it will be better.Then we will check further.
Thanks and best regards
Amy Zhao
In my mind, LiFePO4 still rely on a Solid Electrolye. Bending of the plates MUST induce a higher internal resistance, which can't be good.