Your safety – our priority. Part I

Creating innovative products is a complex process. There is a long distance to cover before a new fastener or rotary hammer is released to stores. The concept, the design, the quality verification, the documentation development, the certification process... Considering such a background, the production start seems to be the mere icing on the cake.

One of the most important stages preceding the release of any Rawlplug product is a series of exhaustive and comprehensive prototype tests. Thanks to the specialised equipment (including a salt spray chamber and an environmental chamber) our laboratories and the Rawlplug technical support department have at their disposal, as well as the testing ground at the Rawlplug Academy, we can verify all the properties we so desire: the behaviour in a given material, strength and durability, ergonomics and performance.

While testing, we pay special attention to the functioning of the safety systems, so meticulously designed and implemented into the products, which prove particularly important in batteries or power tools. We follow a simple rule of thumb: if the safety features do not pass the test, there can be no green light for production – each safety system must pass its test with flying colours.

In the first of two parts of our article, we would like to tell you more about the safety features we use in the batteries and chargers designed for our power tools.

Batteries. Zero tolerance for risk

The lithium used in lithium-ion batteries is a flammable metal. It oxidises rapidly, and its compounds react violently with oxygen, resulting in a risk of explosion, however minute it might be. In order to reduce the potential danger completely, Rawlplug uses an electronic protection system in its batteries, isolating a faulty battery cell once a malfunction is detected. To cut the long story short: the safeguard immediately prevents further operation. If the sensor assesses that the change is reversible, and after the tool returns to a stable state, the system restores the battery to operation. If the change in the cell or cells is severe, the sensor burns out, and the battery is taken out of service for safety reasons.

Here is an example. Lithium-ion batteries are not particularly fond of extreme temperatures. In a biting cold, batteries enter a standstill. Heat pouring down from the sky (even more severe if a power tool is left in a closed car) causes a risk of fire or explosion. This is where the protection system enters the stage, making sure that temperature fluctuations are neither too great nor too rapid. And again, the vigilant electronic components immediately cut off the power supply from the battery when any abnormality in the cells is detected (since both processes heat up the battery even more), making it simply impossible to start the device once the battery has been attached to the power tool, until it is safe again (or, in the case of permanent damage, until the battery is replaced with a new one).

 

Chargers. Specialised in diagnostics

Rawlplug’s chargers feature their unique protection systems, independent of (but communicating with) the systems used in batteries (by the way, both safeguards are based on very similar operating principles). Once a battery is attached to a charger, it runs instant diagnostics of the cells. If any component is found to be malfunctioning, this is communicated to the user by a flashing LED. On top of that, when too high a temperature is detected, the larger of Rawlplug’s two chargers available on the market automatically starts cooling the overheated battery and, once the temperature stabilises, begins the charging process.

The above safety features are extremely important for power supply reasons. To learn more about how we protect our crème de la crème, i.e. the power tools, have a look at the second part of this article.