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UK firm rises to German challenge with bag to contain lithium fires

AMSAFE Bridport, a Dorset firm that develops engineered textiles designed for aerospace safety, has run full-scale tests with a certified fire containment cover system for lithium-ion battery fires.

Not long ago a Hamburg company announced their fire-proof lithium-ion battery bag which it hopes to win approval of regulators and sell to air carriers.

British tests, using lithium batteries covered by the fire containment cover, took more than six hours, with the fire being successfully suppressed, said a company statement.

AMSAFE also makes a separate fire containment bag used for smaller shipments. AMSAFE said both products provide passive protection from fire on board, which would give the crew time to make an emergency landing. The fire containment bag can be customised to any size.

The company claims to have the only technical standard-order product required by the Federal Aviation Administration for a fire containment cover, reported Atlanta area Air Cargo World.

The fire containment textiles are designed for the protection of undeclared dangerous goods. Currently, lithium-ion batteries have been determined to pose a significant threat to air transport.

In July, Boeing issued a warning to its customers that flying bulk shipments of the batteries can cause fires capable of destroying large aircraft. The fire containment cover is designed for full protection of a pallet load.

But the British appear to have a rival in Hamburg's Innovint Aircraft Interior, a 35-year-old emergency equipment maker, which claims to have come up with a way to contain the risk of lithium battery fires aboard airliners.

Innovint has developed the Portable Electronic Device (PED) containment bag to protect passengers and crew as well as the cabin from damage by containing blazing PEDs and batteries.

Able to contain burning objects generating 1,000 degrees Celsius, containment bags enable the crew to bring the defective PED safely to a fireproof place in the cabin, where it can burn out or be cooled down under surveillance.

"The fluid soaking property of the CB allows to cool down the defective battery by immersing the whole bag into water or other non-flammable liquids, which is likely to prevent battery cells from catching fire," said the Innovint statement.