BLUE SPRINGS, Missouri | November 2023: Fike Corporation, a global manufacturer and supplier of industrial hazard protection, has announced the discovery and development of Fike BlueTM, the world’s first patented and third-party tested solution to stop cascading thermal runaway.
Thermal runaway is an unpredictable fire hazard experienced by lithium batteries within energy storage systems. The elevated temperatures of a malfunctioning battery cell often cause adjacent cells to also undergo thermal runaway, creating an extremely dangerous fire and explosion hazard.
Fike’s years of testing and collaboration have proven that the various protection methods currently used in these applications such as water and chemical agents may indeed suppress lithium battery fires but they do little to stop the root cause of the fire itself, thermal runaway. This results in battery cells that continue to produce dangerous offgas and may continue to burn and even reignite the explosive atmosphere.
Fike Blue has been successfully tested internally at Fike’s Remote Testing Facility in Blue Springs, Missouri and by third-party testing organizations, including CSA (Canadian Standards Association) in a UL-9540A test.
Omri Tayyara, director of mechanical engineering at Jule, observed CSA’s testing of Fike Blue.
“We were astounded by its performance,” Tayyara said. “Fike Blue cooled our internal module temperatures from several hundred degrees celsius to under one hundred degrees and prevented cascading thermal runaway–a true engineering breakthrough. It was extremely impressive to watch, and the whole thing was done in less than 10 minutes.”
Some quick facts about Fike Blue include:
- fully submerses the cells and absorbs the intense exothermic heat without breaking down due to a boiling point of more than 400℃.
- uses exponentially less liquid than the water required by sprinklers and especially by fire fighters, resulting in far less runoff into the surrounding environment.
- does not fall under the family of PFAS, many of which are currently under investigation around the world.
- is stored as a pressurized liquid and discharged as a liquid.
- is far less conductive than water and has never shorted the cells.
- may be stored for at least five years at 25°C without formation of precipitates or sediment.
Learn more at fikeblue.com
About Fike: Fike manufactures industrial safety products that protect people and organizations from pressure-related explosions, combustible dust explosions and industrial fire hazards. Using internal product development, scientific research and testing and validation capabilities, Fike develops application-specific solutions consistent with or exceeding the world’s standards and regulations.
If you have any press inquiries, please contact Caroline Margolis - caroline.margolis@fike.com
If you have questions about Fike Blue, please contact Kevin Montgomery - kevin.montgomery@fike.com