Plastic

Battery packs are usually expected to perform for upward of 18 months, often in demanding warehousing, construction and public safety environments where they are regularly bumped, dropped, scraped, exposed to extremes of temperature, and otherwise mistreated. The quality of the plastic used in the battery housing is vitally important, yet this is where many manufacturers cut corners to keep costs down.

Many battery packs are made using low cost, low grade ABS plastic or various ABS/PC alloys. As with cells, the difference between low and high quality plastic may not become obvious until after a period of usage. Brittle, low-grade plastic has poor resistance to impact, vibration and temperature extremes, and often burns easily when exposed to flame. After being dropped onto concrete a few times- sometimes just once- many cheap battery packs will crack and eventually split open.

The raw plastic material used in standard GL Batteries battery packs is 100% Panlite?(L-1250Y) polycarbonate (PC) plastic, supplied by Teijin Petrochemical of Japan. This extremely tough plastic material is well known for its strength¹ and hardness², high impact resistance³, high dimensional stability and flame retardant properties⁴ -all essential elements of a battery pack expected to perform thanklessly for long periods in the toughest conditions.

Most battery pack housings comprise upper and lower pieces of plastic. The strength of the join between them is of crucial importance, as this is where a battery pack is most likely to come apart under impact.

GL Batteries battery pack housings are literally fused together during assembly using industrial-grade ultrasonic welding machines. During welding, the contact areas liquefy and melt into each other, creating an unbreakable bond between the two halves. Unlike many others, GL Batteries battery packs will not come apart at the seams when the going gets rough. When everything else around you is falling apart, you need a battery pack that can hold it together!