Batteries Not Included….

So your attending an international trade show and planning your shipping. Your equipment and display contains lithium ion batteries. Normally, most clients would consider shipping items with batteries to international exhibitions harmless. This seems reasonable when you think about the battery operated materials we currently hand carry onto planes and travel with. You start to see that batteries are a normal part of life. However, ask yourself, how are you going to ship these? What are the regulations? The procedures are complex and subject to change quickly. When shipping to an international exhibition, lithium ion batteries are in products ranging from laptops or smart phones to the most elaborate displays in the international and domestic trade show world. When planning your shipments to an international trade show, there are extra steps needed to be taken to ensure safe and legal transit of these items. Lithium ion batteries are covered under the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations. This means that they are hazardous. The most common batteries that are shipped are UN3480- lithium ion batteries and UN3480- lithium ion batteries contained in equipment or packed with equipment. The information, regulations and debate on these batteries change frequentl. There are new regulations coming out soon and they will change again in the future. The following link takes you direct to the IATA web page concerning these batteries. [url=http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Pages/lithium-batteries.aspx]IATA Shipping Batteries[/url] You can also contact your TWI rep and they will be glad to assist you on getting the correct information. Handling your freight to exhibitions is our specialty, and getting difficult or complex shipments to an overseas show is something we excel in. – Drew Camier - Drew Camier is TWI’s New York Manager and can be reached at [html]<a href="mailto:dcamier@twigroup.com">Email Drew</a>[/html] His team has a tremendous amount of experience in hazardous good shipping for exhibitions, special projects and any time sensitive shipments.