Battery nomenclature
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) was established in France in 1906 and co-ordinates development of standards for a wide range of electrical products.
[3] Since 1992, International standard IEC 60086 defines an alphanumeric coding system for batteries.
[6] American standards were revised several times during the following decades, as new sizes of cells were introduced and new chemistry developed, including chloride, alkaline, mercury and rechargeable types.
The 1934 edition of the C18 standard expanded the nomenclature system to include series and parallel arrays of cells.
Three different technical committees of IEC make standards on batteries: TC21 (lead-acid), SC21 (other secondary) and TC35 (primary).
After October 1990, round cells are systematically identified with a number derived from their diameter and height.
The first letter identifies the chemical composition of the battery, which also implies a nominal voltage.
Italics indicate a chemical system unlikely to be found in consumer or general-purpose batteries, or withdrawn from the current standard.
Standardized size codes for round batteries which do not follow the current nomenclature but have been retained for ease of use are given by a one or two digit number following the R. These include but are not limited to: [8] Round button batteries also carry two-digit size codes such as R44, see the button battery table for typical dimensions.
Other round, flat, and square sizes have been standardized but are used mostly for components of multi-cell batteries.
The following is a partial list of IEC standard recommended diameter and height codes for round cells: After the package size code(s), additional letters may optionally appear.
Performance levels may also be designated with a C, P, S, CF, HH, or HB or other letter suffixes.
IEC nomenclature classifies batteries according to their general shape and overall physical appearance.
A2 indicates the basis of positive electrode phase, and could be C, N, M, V or T for cobalt, nickel, manganese, vanadium and titanium respectively.
(For any of the lengths above, if the dimension is smaller than 1 mm it can be written as tN, where N is tenths of mm) E.g. ICR19/66, ICP9/35/48, 2ICP20/34/70, 1ICP20/68/70-2 Early editions of the ANSI standard used a letter code to identify the dimensions of the cell.
The current edition of the standard uses a numerical code to show the cell size.
Flat cells, used as components of multi-cell batteries, have an F prefix and a series of numbers to identify sizes.
