Toughbook Central

Inside your Toughbook Battery is a sophisticated controller for charging/discharging your battery pack. Li-Ion battery elements are industry standard 18650 form factor. I have seen reports that the same batteries are being used in Tesla electric cars.
In this CF-W5 battery 18650 elements are made by Panasonic. In other models it could be a diffrent supplier.

Note the termocouple on the picture below. It monitors your battery temperature and shuts it down if it gets overheated preventing fire or exlosion.

Last word. Never ever try to disassemble or repair your battery. It’s dangerous. If it blinks red and gets no charge dispose it properly and get a new one. I strongly recommend genuine parts over the aftermarket.

Engadget has conducted a comprehensive toughness test of Panasonic’s Toughbook 30 vs. GammaTech’s Durabook D15RP. It included typical testing stuff: dropping on the floor, standing on the lid, pouring water on the keyboard.

The Toughbook’s battery lasted 7 hours out of 10 maximum possible with Wi-Fi enabled. Room for second battery allows to double field working time.

While Toughbook had survived all tests easily, Durabook was less lucky. After a water test Durabook’s keyboard caught a flu glitch. It started typing weird characters. After all Durabook is positioned as a semi-rugged notebook.

Read full review. Videos and lots of images are available.

Toughbook Motherboard Production

Riyad Emeran from TrustedReviews.com visited Panasonic factory in Kobe, Japan where Toughbooks are being assembled. Read the full story online or download a printable PDF version.

In this video Panasonic CF-30 is being dropped, washed and even driven over by a car.

Panasonic Toughbook W7 (Toughbook W7 Review from CNet.com – 3/19/2008)
The Panasonic Toughbook CF-W7 manages to be lightweight and awkwardly bulky, but this rugged ultraportable offers excellent protection for business travelers who are extra rough on their systems.