The battery has become our steady travel companion

Battery user groups have asked me to write an edited version of Batteries in a Portable World. The first edition was published in 1997. Much has changed since then.

My very first publication in book form was entitled Strengthening the Weakest Link. It was, in part, a collection of battery articles which I had written. These articles had been published in various trade magazines and gained the interest of many readers. This goes back to the late 1980s and the material covered topics such as the memory effect of NiCd batteries and how to restore them.

Descubrimiento en Pruebas Rápidas de Baterías

  • Posted on: 29 April 2016
  • By: Isidor Buchmann

Cuándo le pregunté a un gran fabricante de baterías, "¿Es factible realizar pruebas rápidas en baterías?", el ingeniero contestó con tono firme: "No." Su conclusión se basó en la dificultad de usar un método universal de prueba aplicable a todas las aplicaciones de batería, desde comunicaciones inalámbricas a la informática móvil hasta herramientas de potencia en montacargas y vehículos eléctricos.

Tags: 
Spanish

Do battery returns need to be a million dollar problem?

  • Posted on: 23 April 2016
  • By: Isidor Buchmann
Recycled Batteries

With the move to lithium-ion, fewer cell phone batteries fail during the warranty period than with nickel-based chemistries. Lithium-ion is less temperamental and needs less customer preparation than nickel. Yet, the volume of returned batteries remains relatively high. 

A North American cellular provider with about 12 million subscribers receives roughly 70,000 warranty returns per month. Out of these returned handsets, 50% have mechanical failures; 30% are performance related issues; 15% have battery or charger related problems; and 5% have miscellaneous faults. 

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Recycle
Environment

Energieanzeige: Tatsache oder Trugschluss?

Man stellt sich die Batterie gern als Stromspeicher vor, ähnlich einem Tank für Flüssigtreibstoff. Vereinfacht darf man die Batterie als solchen betrachten; doch ist die Messung von in einem elektrochemischen Element gespeicherter Energie viel komplexer. Die Ergieankanzeige einer Batterie wird allgemein schlecht verstanden; darum soll dieser Artikel über die Schwierigkeiten beim Messen der in einer Batterie gespeicherten Energie aufklären.