08/26/2011 (Liliana Lopez)
What used to be an informal cooperation between a few visionaries turned into a formal organization on 7 April in Cologne, when BATSO e.V. was formally established as an association with the long-term goal of getting the IEC to endorse BATSO 01 as the industry standard for battery safety. The formation of BATSO e.V. was an important step on the way towards this goal.
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The association was offically established on 7 April 2011 at the head office of TÜV Rheinland in Cologne with its main goal to have BATSO 01 accepted as the industry-wide standard. With this step the informal cooperation of a number of organizations was replaced by a formal organization, with a proper legal form and a formal goal. The international association is based in Berlin. How all started BATSO stands for BATtery Safety Organization and came about in 2002 in the wake of the cooperation between ExtraEnergy e.V. and the Deutschen Post AG. At the time the goal was to ensure quality and offer consumers protection by helping them differentiate between safe and unsafe batteries. This was the birth moment of the BATSO tests. BATSO tests The basic principles underlying the methodology of the BATSO tests were first formulated by a number of institutes and then further developed. Cooperating on the formulation of the basic principles were the Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung (ZWS) in Ulm, professor Martin Winter (of TU Graz) and dr. Mo-Hua Yang of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan. After many years of testing, the predecessor of the BATSO standard was then developed in cooperation with two of the world's biggest test and certification organizations, namely TÜV Rheinland and UL (Underwriter Laboratories). Association established Initially the organizations ITRI, ExtraEnergy e.V., TÜV Rheinland and UL had in mind to work together in a loose, informal organization for battery safety known as BATtery Safety Organization (BATSO). This cooperative project was first announced publicly in March 2007 at the LEV Conference. In 2008 the first test protocols were released. In 2009 the first BATSO test laboratory was opened in the Chinese city of Shenzhen by TÜV Rheinland. Just one year later it was possible to certify the first lithium batteries as adhering to the BATSO 01 industry standard. By turning BATSO into a formal association on 7 April 2011, the next milestone, namely recognition as a DIN standard, and the final goal, namely worldwide recognition as an IEC standard, became realistic targets. These aims are in line with the association's declared wider aim to stay in tune with technological progress on all relevant fronts, especially the sciences. The foundation of the association also opened the way for everyone interested in battery safety to participate in the BATSO activities. Manufacturers of batteries, electric vehicles, traders, clients, institutes, governmental organizations, testing and certification organizations and interested private individuals can now get involved in BATSO e.V. by becoming members. >>Constitution of the Battery Safety Organization e.V. (in German) as a PDF. Copy: Angela Budde, Hannes Neupert Picture: BATSO e.V. (from left: Stefan Kischka (vice president), Peter Gutzeit (treasurer), Luca Destro, Hannes Neupert (president), Mei-Huey Chen, Stephan Scheuer, Mo-Hua Yang, Uwe Wienand). | |||||