Safety and compliance
UN38.3
The transport test regime lithium cells and batteries must pass before they can be moved by air or sea, covering eight tests including altitude, thermal, vibration, shock and external short circuit.
What it changes in practice
UN38.3 is about transport, not about product safety in use. What a buyer normally receives is the test summary rather than the full laboratory report, and that summary is the document a carrier or forwarder will ask for. It is model-specific, so a summary covering one model does not cover a sibling model that was added to the range later.
Why it matters when you specify a cell
Ask for the test summary with the shipment, and check that it names the model and construction being shipped. It is a transport document: it says nothing about cycle life or suitability for your application. Product safety for the end use is a separate assessment, and a valid summary does not substitute for it.
Related terms
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More in Safety and compliance
Other terms in this group
Transport, safety and what the documents actually cover.
IEC 62133
The international safety standard for sealed portable secondary lithium cells and batteries, with part 2 covering lithium systems.
Read the entry →IEC 62619
The international safety standard for secondary lithium cells and batteries used in industrial applications, including stationary energy storage.
Read the entry →UL 1642
The North American standard covering lithium cells, with UL 2054 covering battery packs assembled from them.
Read the entry →Thermal runaway
A self-sustaining internal heating process in which a cell generates heat faster than it can dissipate it, leading to venting, fire or propagation to adjacent cells.
Read the entry →MSDS / SDS
The safety data sheet describing the chemical hazards of a cell, its handling requirements and the response to fire, leak or exposure.
Read the entry →