Lithium-ion battery expert witness and consultant
I have been developing lithium-ion batteries since the late 1980’s. I managed the Product Development and Product Evaluation groups at Moli Energy in the early 1990’s. Moli Energy was the first company in North America (and third world-wide) to commercialize lithium-ion batteries.
I continue to work in the field of lithium-ion batteries; I am not a “hired gun” professional witness. Unlike many full-time witnesses who profess to being experts in many fields, I only work on lithium-ion battery cases.
Safety and abuse testing of lithium-ion has been a large part of my career going back to the early days of lithium-ion, personally authoring the safety and abuse sections of the first lithium-ion IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standard and working on an ad hoc committee assisting UL (Underwriter Laboratories) with safety and abuse testing procedures.
Lithium-ion systems were developed as a safer alternative to lithium metal rechargeable batteries which were very unsafe, but lithium-ion batteries still “pack a punch” due to their high energy density. There are a number of scenarios of misuse that can initiate a lithium-ion battery venting or explosion. Following initiation there are a sequence of events that occur within the batteries during thermal runaway. Understanding the mechanisms for initiation and propagation allow us to decipher the root causes of lithium-ion battery incidents.
Marc Juzkow
www.linkedin.com/in/marc-juzkow