The supplier that shipped me the 100 cells was a different supplier than the one with all of the crap CATL shipments. The supplier that is the main problem shipped cells that were up to 310ah.
My supplier that shipped CATL cells from EV packs is dependable and packs them well. Not sure what happened with the 202ah cells from him that one guy got that were damaged in shipping....but that supplier seldom has cells damaged in shipping and he is really good about doing the right thing when that does happen.
Well Michael,
I believe that I can shed some light on at least part of the cause of damage to my shipment of 202's.
After 14 days trying to get the boxes from my local FedEx distribution center I have received 9 of 14 boxes, FedEx returned the last 2 boxes to the shipper last night, I managed to reject 2 boxes at delivery and 1 box was delivered to the wrong address...
7 of the 9 boxes I did receive had sustained significant damage and only 1 box contained 4 relatively undamaged cells.
While I personally wouldn't absolve FEDEX of any responsibility. One significant factor became apparent, only one (1) box of the eleven (11) boxes I observed had foam inserts for side protection / structural integrity of the package.
All of the boxes had foam inserts for the top and bottom. It appears that the top inserts may be designed for use for cells without studs, as the studs pushed through the foam in every box and in many cases even the cardboard box. Another 1/2" - 3/4" of foam on top would've prevented this..
The only box that arrived with the 4 cells mostly undamaged had 2 additional foam inserts added for side protection. I'm guessing these were the last 2 they had around as there is actually room for 3 inserts.
Its apparent that in addition to impact protection, these side inserts provided stability of the cells in transit keeping them from constantly shifting and provided rigidity to the whole package.
I'm pretty confident that if they had just used 3 extra foam inserts in each box most of my cells would have arrived intact.
I'm working on emails...