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The United Nations organization, based in Geneva and New York, runs for years a “Sub-Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods” that has the authority to make recommendations relative to the transport of dangerous goods.

For lithium and lithium-ion batteries, these recommendations appear in the following two key documents:

• Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods – Model Regulations 15th Revised Edition - 2006 – Ref. ST/SG/AC.10/1/Rev.15
• Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods – Manual of Tests and Criteria 4th Revised Edition - 2003 – Ref. ST/SG/AC.10/11/Rev.4

These documents may be amended periodically, following proposals made by representative of the battery industry, national administrations, or professional associations which may feel concerned by transport safety. In the field of dangerous goods, the UN Model Regulations list nine Hazard Classes.

Lithium cells and batteries, primary and rechargeable, as other “miscellaneous substances and articles” are normally assigned to the Class 9.

The applicable UN Identification Numbers for Daniamant products (that need to be used for labelling and declarations) are:

• UN 3091, for primary and Li-ion batteries contained in equipment or packed with it.

In order to assess their safety prior to first shipment, primary and lithium-ion cell and battery types need to be tested, whatever their size and their aggregated “lithium metal” or “lithium-equivalent” content.

The UN Manual of Tests and Criteria lists 8 types of tests (T1 to T8*) to be applied to un-discharged and fully discharged primary and rechargeable cell/battery samples, (in addition, and for Li-ion, samples cycled 1 or 50 times before).

• Primary lithium cells with not more than 1 gram of lithium metal content,
• Rechargeable lithium-ion cells with not more than 1.5 gram of lithium-equivalent metal content,
• Primary lithium batteries with not more than 2 grams of lithium metal content,
• Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries with not more than 8 grams of lithium-equivalent metal content,

Cells and batteries that pass the UN tests successfully are exempted from regulations. They are declared “non-restricted to transport” or “exempted from Class 9 requirements” (these two expressions are equivalent), something which is often abbreviated as “non-Class 9 assigned”.

Products with lithium contents exceeding the above limits and that also successfully pass the UN tests can just be declared “restricted to transport” or “assigned to Class 9”. A piece of equipment that contains Class 9 batteries or battery packs becomes assigned to Class 9.

Starting 1 January 2009, UN Identification Numbers for Daniamant products containing lithium batteries will be modified as follows:

• UN3091, Lithium Metal Batteries contained in Equipment, 9,PG II

Starting 1 January 2009, the “lithium-equivalent” notion will be replaced by the “nominal energy” one. This later is obtained by multiplying the declared nominal capacity by the number of component cells by the declared nominal voltage. The limits for assignment to Class 9 will be set at 20 Watt-hours (cells) and 100 Watt-hours (batteries).

A table listing Daniamant products is detailed below, for full details please refer to the full Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), which can be found under each product section on the website or downloaded from the table below. 

Product	Transport	Material Safety Data Sheet	Lithium Content ≤1 gram cell ≤2 gram battery	Watt hour rating ≤20.00wh
L6, L6A, L7A	Unrestricted		1.08 grams 2 cell battery	9.30wh
LJ1	Unrestricted		0.53 grams 1 cell	5.10wh
Rescue DAN M1, W1, MR, WR, Rescue SOL, Rescue DAN R.INT1	Unrestricted		<0.99 grams 1 cell	6.00wh
Rescue DAN R.INT2	Unrestricted		0.89 grams 1 cell	10.00wh

 

Product	Transport	Material Safety Data Sheet	Lithium Content ≥1 gram cell ≥2 gram battery	Watt hour rating ≥20.00wh
Rescue SUN, Rescue Master 1, LITE GB, Combi LD	Class 9		2.50 grams 1 cell	20.88wh
LJ2, RB2, L120, RL5, WAELS	Class 9		2.40 grams 1 cell	23.25wh
Rescue DAN R.EXT, Rescue Master 2B, 3B	Class 9		5.00 grams 2 cell battery	41.76wh