Creating a safe work environment within eMobility production facilities

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.

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.

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.