Creating a safe work environment within eMobility production facilities

Created Wednesday, 5 April, 2023

The importance for electrical drives in the automotive industry is increasing rapidly and, associated therewith, we see technological development and innovations through different products and applications. As processes in the eMobility industry often generate extremely harmful emissions, the manufacturers are facing challenges to create a safe and clean work environment but also to reduce energy costs in the production and extraction process.

Nevertheless, processes in the eMobility industry generate smaller volumes of emissions compared to other industries, but these dusts and fumes are often very harmful. Therefore the manufacturers have to create a safe work environment by controlling these pollutants using the right capture and extraction solutions, to protect operators, the environment as well as processes and products from contamination through airborne particles.

emobility brochure

Download

key processes within the emobility industry

battery cell production

Lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing processes such as anode and cathode coating, slitting, stacking, battery cell assembly and electrolyte filling are performed in clean and humidity controlled environments to protect the product and the operators from airborne contaminants. Particles and smoke from laser technologies generated during these manufacturing processes need to be captured to ensure safe operation.

Industry´s challenges & concerns

The electrification of the global transport sector and in particular the lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing processes are characterised by a high demand for clean air. Several stages of the production processes are performed in clean and dry rooms according to the generated airborne contaminants that can affect the health of operators and compromise the quality of the products. To ensure good indoor air quality and a safe working environment, it is crucial that these airborne contaminants are captured, contained and removed from the airstream before entering the ambient air.

Manufactures in the eMobility industry are facing three major concerns when handling emissons from those processes:

1. Protect processes and products from contamination by airborne particles

Production processes of electrical batteries such as anode and cathode coating, slitting, stacking, battery cell assembly and electrolyte filling are performed in clean and dry rooms. Indeed humidity and contaminants may compromise the chemical balance of batteries compromising their charging and discharging performance. Above mentioned processes generate particles due to material handling, friction, cutting or smoke generated by laser technologies. These contaminants need to be removed by means of air filtration or dust extraction. Camfil can offer both solutions and what is best really depends on the concentration and on the properties of the dust.

As a simple rule of thumb, if the concentration is at or above 0.05 mg/m³, a dust collection system with pulse-cleaned filter elements will probably the best option to handle the process dust, providing a reasonable filter life.

2. Creating safe work environments by mitigating exposure and explosion risks for operators

During the production of lithium-ion battery processes like raw material handling & drying, slurry mixing, anode & cathode slitting, stacking, battery cell assembly particulates are generated which cause a risk to both, the people within the factory and the environment. Two main concerns are critical: Personnel exposure to toxic dusts and the explosion properties of the dusts.

Exposure protection
Different types of batteries use different chemistries, having different level of performance, cost and safety characteristics. Controlling toxic dust is a common, yet serious, challenge of the production processes. The more hazardous chemicals that are used, the lower exposure should be allowed for personnel coming into contact with these materials. It is the employers’ responsibility to know and understand these exposure limits for each product they are using and take the necessary steps to ensure the limits are not exceeded, in order to protect their operators and the environment.
Explosion protection
The ATEX-directive requires that the employer is responsible to carry out a risk assessment to determine the necessary fire and explosion protection. Furthermore all ATEX safety systems require regular inspection and service to function reliably.

3. Save energy cost by filtering and recirculating the dry and conditioned air

A clean and dry environment is critical to battery production processes. Costs for energy required to create the correct environment have a significant impact on the total manufacturing expenses. These costs can be reduced by an efficient air filtration system that is less energy consuming and that allows the recirculation of the dry and conditioned air. Furthermore a properly designed capture solution helps to reduce the amount of extracted air, yielding to further energy savings and therefore the reduction of operational costs.

application-specific extraction solutions

As there is a wide variety of different processes and new production lines used in the eMobility industry, capture and extraction solutions have to be tailored to meet the challenges of each customer. Therefore an assesment of the application and the handled materials is recommended to determine a safe and efficient solution. Our experience in this industry shows us that it´s often a combination of different filtration solutions such as dust and fume extraction, molecular filtration and cleanroom technology which leads to a clean and safe workplace.

Dust & Mist Extraction

Dust, fume and mist extraction solutions safely handle exhaust air from industrial manufacturing processes, therefore improving the IAQ, providing explosion protection solutions and containment to help mitigate the risks to operators, processes and the environment.

Show products

molecular filtration

Molecular Contamination Control (MCC) products remove molecules, gases and vapours emitted in exhaust air streams from industrial processes which cannot be captured using particle filters.

show products

clean & Dry room

Controlled environments must protect critical processes and personnel. A high level of air cleanliness is essential to protect products and to contain hazardous compounds. High-quality filtration systems help ensure regulatory compliance and maintain efficient operations.

show products

evaluation & process monitoring

Evaluation:

To determine the best filtration solution for your eMobility applications it is recommended to set-up a design evaluation process right from the beginning. It´s crucial to understand the working principle and the generated emissions of the machinery which is often specifically developed for this relatively new industry. Considering this information together with the performance characteristics of Camfil´s clean air solutions, it is possible to validate if the entire process fulfills or better outperforms the local requirements and legislation for health, safety and environment.

Process monitoring:

Equally important to the validation beforehand, is a continuous monitoring of the ongoing production process. Only when the machinery of the production lines as well as the extraction and ventilation systems work properly, it can be ensured, that the workplace exposure limits are not exceeded.

Explore more content:

Contact our experts