Working group seeks to improve laptop battery safety

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New battery standards to improve the design, testing and overall safety of laptops could be heading users' way in less than a year.

The news should go some way to alleviate safety fears.

It follows a year when millions of batteries were recalled by manufacturers - Dell being the first - and a number of airlines clamped down on in-cabin usage of potential offenders, causing additional headaches for business travelers.

The Portable Computer Battery Working Group, set up by standards body the IEEE in response to the recent issues, has provided an update on earlier promises that the IEEE 1625 standard for rechargeable batteries for laptops would be revised.

According to the group, which has accelerated timescales for the change, the revision aims to address the "design, manufacture and testing of lithium-ion battery cells and packs used in portable computing devices."

The meeting was attended en masse by the industry, with representation from cell manufacturers, OEMs and third-party test and certification bodies.

"We made impressive progress in our first meeting by setting an organisational structure, reaching agreement on funding, and setting a development schedule," said David Ling, HP's regulatory policy and strategy manager and the working group's acting chair.

A number of sub groups have been created to speed up the delivery of the new standard. A progress review of work conducted so far has been penciled in for February in Asia.

"One of the primary goals for the revised version of IEEE 1625 is to establish liaisons with key standards development organisations and stakeholders to ensure better coordination, avoid conflict, and support collaboration to improve battery standardisation globally," said Jean Baronas, director of the technology standards office at Sony Electronics.

"We also want to submit the completed document for acceptance by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as a dual-logo standard."

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