John's cells arrived today! All in superb shape IMHO. John did a great job packaging and shipping them. I can only imagine the time it took. I know how long it took me to just unwrap, measure and photograph, rewrap and store them.
All cells measured either 3.292 or 3.293 Volts on a well calibrated DVM. No tearing or crushing of the foil packets. One thing that I didn't expect was the foils on the long edges were shaped and curled into a "C" along the long edge. They were not flat like the cells I had seen photos of before. The white plastic packaging fit the cells once curled into the "C" shape, so it appears deliberate and helps in shipping I believe. The part of the cell that takes the most "hurt" is the area between the tabs where the shaped shipping liner contacts the foil.
Center stampings were either A0, A1 or A2
First line on all was APP72161227 followed by blank, P1, P2 or P3. This varying mark did not correlate with A0, A1 or A2 markings.
What appears to be serial numbers or date codes varied:
SH(A,B,C,or D)11(A,B,D, E,F )xxxxxxx followed by blank or P1 P2 or P3
All said on the last line
300386-USA
Two things I noticed on two cells. After unwrapping and feeling the cells you hand gets a feeling for what is the norm, sort of like feeling currency. Let me show you one cell that had a texture anomaly. I wonder if this is the "shift" or misalignment that A123 talks about? It is on the cell that I labeled "3" a P1 cell SHA11E0400339 There was a slight ridge down the middle of the cell. About 5/8 inch wide and raised on the front and back by say 0.012 inches. The "thing" under the foil seemed to have sharp edges. Pix below are the cell, my finger points to the ridge on the front and the back.
- Cell3.jpg (49.03 KiB) Viewed 244 times
- Cell3FrontFold.jpg (49.01 KiB) Viewed 244 times
Here I marked where it feels like there is an extra "tape" inside the foil package. It is both front and rear, and just about right down the middle.
- Cell3FrontFold2.jpg (54.93 KiB) Viewed 239 times
- Cell3BackFold.jpg (43.85 KiB) Viewed 244 times
EDIT: I have been thinking about this ridge. If I were to package this cell I would use my 0.010 in thick fishpaper and make it two layers thick. I would remove the second layer in the center, say a 1 inch wide piece to take the pressure off of that ridge. I could very easily see how if this cell was stacked with the others and compressed, all the pressure would be on that ridge. If I basically make a spacer and put the pressure on the sides of the cell and not on the ridge, I might be OK.
Then towards the bottom of the stack my cell "17" that caught my eye because it was the only one with no "P" number after the APP72161227 line. Then I looked closer and all the writing looked squished together and was blacker than all the other cells. The 17 other cells were very consistent in marking. Number 17 had the lines closer together and the line height was less for the printing that is on th body of the cell. I would say shrunk about 15% or so. However the line of printing that goes across the tabs looks identical on all cells.
- Cell17Label.jpg (54.41 KiB) Viewed 244 times
Cell 18 for comparison. This was the norm.
- Cell18Label.jpg (52.85 KiB) Viewed 244 times
I don't know really what to make of my observations. I would say 16 of the cells appear identical. One had the fold in the center, but it's markings were like the others. One cell looked and felt fine, but the markings were shrunk 15% and there was no P number on the first line.
for sharing the details of what you know. If these turn out ok, then do you intend to probably do another group buy? 
