NEMA Publishes ANSI C18.1M, Part 1 American National Standard for Portable Primary Cells and Batteries with Aqueous Electrolyte—General and Specifications

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) published ANSI C18.1M, Part 1 American National Standard for Portable Primary Cells and Batteries with Aqueous Electrolyte—General and Specifications. It applies to portable primary cells and batteries with aqueous electrolyte and a zinc anode (non-lithium).

Last published in 2009, this revision was developed by the ANSI C18 Committee to ensure electrical and physical interchangeability for today’s most popular primary batteries—carbon zinc (Leclanché and zinc chloride types), alkaline manganese dioxide, silver oxide, zinc air, and nickel oxyhydroxide. It provides a standard of performance along with guidance for assessment.

Test schemes for the 13 D, 14 C, 15 AA, and 24 AA batteries have been modified along with application test updates for the 7000 series of hearing-aid batteries. More user-friendly tables have been provided for test conditions and battery terminals.

ANSI C18.1M, Part 1 is useful to consumers, manufacturers, and device designers on topics ranging from reliability to handling and storage. Products that use batteries as a power source include consumer electronics, games, medical devices, portable lighting, remote controls, smoke detectors and toys.