• Portable packs are useful, but consumers are now being warned of carrying cheap power banks as they are highly flammable.

Portable packs are useful, but consumers are now being warned of carrying cheap power banks as they are highly flammable. (Photo : www.eetimes.com)

Recently, a smartphone battery pack caught on flame and put a woman's bag on fire while aboard a Guangzhou Metro train. This caused mayhem inside the train, but fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident.

Lithium batteries, given their high output, are highly flammable if they short circuit, said Xie Wenbin, an associate professor at Wenzhou University. This usually happens when there has been damage in the control circuit, and when there is battery overcharging, he added.

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All 32 products that were sampled by China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine were inspected and found to have safety risks.

Experts stated that power packs that short circuit easily are usually built of substandard battery cells. Other problems were found to have false labeling of volume and major price differences. These problems happen because there remains to be no unified set of quality inspection standards, the experts said.

There are now more than 30 standards set by the government, including temperature, vibration, impact, washing, charging, and short circuits for battery power pack inspections. These standards are set to be implemented on Aug. 1, and will also be used as standards for lithium batteries used in portable electronic devices.

The introduction and implementation of the standards will provide guidelines for manufacturers to follow, and will be helpful in improving the chaotic situation in the current market.

Meanwhile, in Taiwan, the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection enacted standard inspections for mobile battery packs in May 2014.