LP30794 battery product

The LP30794 is a 24 V, 50 Ah lithium-ion battery from EaglePicher Technologies, built as an aircraft-grade rechargeable battery pack with an integrated battery management system. It is listed among the company's high-capacity lithium-ion data sheets for unmanned aerial vehicles and is also described for manned aircraft, electric vehicles, underwater vehicles and utility grid use.

The pack has a nominal output voltage of 25.2 V and a capacity of 50 Ah, which gives an energy storage capacity of 1260 Wh. The maximum continuous output current is 66 A. For an integrator, these figures fix the power envelope: at 25.2 V the continuous current corresponds to a load of roughly 1.66 kW, which suits avionics, actuators, auxiliary power and mid-size electric propulsion buses on larger unmanned and manned platforms. The listed weight is not to exceed 38 lbs.

The pack is made from prismatic lithium-ion cells that EaglePicher describes as proprietary, and the cell-level figures are an energy density of 265 Wh/liter, a specific energy of 112.5 Wh/kg and a cycle life above 2,000 cycles. Design life is stated as 5 years or 10,000 flight hours. These cell-level numbers are lower than the figures of pouch cells made for endurance multirotors, because this battery is engineered for qualification, ruggedness and long service life in aircraft rather than for the lowest possible mass.

Integration is helped by built-in plug-and-play electronics. The battery uses the existing on-board Ni-Cd charging systems of an aircraft, and it is described as a 24 V / 50 Ah drop-in replacement for a 24 V / 10 Ah Ni-Cd battery of the same size and weight. Stated volume is 11.8 in long by 8.2 in wide by 7.3 in high. Cell balance charging and cell and battery safety protection are part of the design, and the battery requires no maintenance. A Battery Electronics Test System is available for shop-level testing, fault isolation, diagnostics, maintenance and repair.

Environmental capability is stated as an operating temperature of -40°C to 65°C, and the battery operates at -40°C without needing to be heated, which removes a heater and its power draw from cold-weather installations. The datasheet describes the battery as fully qualified and nuclear radiation hardened.

Typical applications are replacement of Ni-Cd batteries in existing aircraft, main or emergency power in manned and unmanned aircraft, and stationary or vehicle-based storage where a 24 V lithium-ion pack of this capacity is needed.