Battery knowledge · Safety and abuse
Thermal cutoff
A temperature-operated switch placed against the cells that opens the current path when they get too hot. One-shot thermal fuses melt a pellet or alloy link and stay open; bimetal protectors snap open at roughly 70–90 °C and close again on cooling. It backs up the electronic protection, especially in laptop and power-tool packs.
- Abbreviation
- TCO
- Also called
- thermal fuse, bimetal protector, thermal protector, thermal switch
Example
Safety and abuse: an example situation
A low normal-load temperature does not demonstrate thermal-runaway containment.
Read Thermal cutoff alongside Fuse in this context. A link that melts and opens the circuit when current exceeds its rating. Packs use a main fuse in the high-voltage path and often a small fuse on each parallel cell connection, so one shorted cell does not drain its neighbours into the fault.
Use in Lemonergy
Connect mechanisms with appropriate test evidence.
This is a reference concept. No executable Lemonergy block has been verified for this term.
References & further reading
Further reading on this topic
These sources provide broader context; they are not presented as citations for every statement in this entry.
- Thermal runaway mechanism of lithium ion battery for electric vehicles: A review
Xuning Feng et al. · Energy Storage Materials · 2018
Topic background · Electrical, mechanical and thermal abuse; thermal-runaway mechanisms and propagation.