Containment for battery production
When it comes to developing and processing certain battery raw materials and components, it is critical to adhere to strict product and personal safety requirements. On the one hand, the substances must not be contaminated by other substances in their environment. On the other hand, it is necessary to effectively and safely protect the operator involved in product handling from contact with partly toxic products. To achieve this, containment solutions are necessary. Containment in battery production refers to isolating a product, such as lithium, from other products, operators, and the environment.
Containment is necessary at various process steps in the production of lithium-ion batteries, including product feeding, discharging, filter change or recycling. ON has developed several pragmatic, efficient and tailor-made solutions to guarantee your operators' safety and protect your product from contamination. These solutions can include isolators or downflow booths. The most suitable containment technology for your operation will depend on factors such as the scale of your operation, the length of tasks, and the potential for dust with the battery's raw materials.
OEB 6 | > 500 ng/m3
Peak levels of containment. Maximum protection for the operator and the product.
OEB 5 | > 1 µg/m3
A cost-effective "plug-and-play" barrier containment solution that can easily be transported to where it is needed.
OEB 4 | 1 - 10 µg/m3
We offer recirculation and single pass bespoke downflow booths in standard and bespoke sizes, depending on your individual requirements.
OEB 3 | 10 - 100 µg/m3
Horizontal Laminar Flow Booths protect operators, products and processes from dust and fumes through controlled, once-through and non-turbulent extraction.
OEB 2 | 100 - 1000 µg/m3
Accurate weight-controlled filling systems maintain the highest standards of hygiene, dust control and product integrity.
OEB 1 | 1000 - 5000 µg/m3
Packing head solutions to complement our filling and weighing systems. Local extraction provides added levels of protection.
Your advantages with ON’s containment equipment
- Modular and flexible design
- High levels of ergonomic mobility for operators
- Comfortable environment for extended work periods
- Suitable for a wide range of tasks
- Optional ATEX design
- Energy conservation design
Li-ion batteries: material safety
In the production of li-ion batteries, safety is a crucial factor. This concerns not only the staff handling the battery components (hazard containment), but also the energy performance materials themselves. To ensure that the product quality is of high standard, the materials used must be produced according to an exact recipe and be free from any impurities (contamination containment). Containment solutions are necessary for raw materials like silicon, carbon black or cobalt which are used in in the anode and cathode of a lithium-ion battery.
Operator safety
Operator safety is an important consideration when handling battery materials, as some of the materials can be carcinogenic. ON provides various industrial containment solutions to complement their equipment for drying, mixing, milling, and particle design, depending on the product and required Occupational Exposure Banding (OEB) level. These solutions must be pragmatic and easy to implement so that the staff will not ignore them. Here, isolators (gloveboxes) and downflow booths have proven to be viable solutions.
Gloveboxes for battery production
Gloveboxes or isolators are a form of barrier containment. They are designed to handle materials or substances where a separate atmosphere is necessary. Gloveboxes protect the product from contamination while at the same time providing operator safety up to OEB 5 during the production of lithium-ion batteries. On gloveboxes and isolators can be purged with an inert gas to minimise the level of oxygen and prevent oxygen or moisture from coming into contact with reactive or adsorptive battery materials, simultaneously ensuring product protection and operator safety.
The isolator incorporates an extract system which maintains a negative pressure internally to ensure that any material is contained inside the chamber and drawn into the extract filters.
ON’s gloveboxes are available in single and multi-cell variants for processes including milling, micronising, dispensing, sampling and product pack-off. They are designed for manual and automated handling and processing of powders including battery raw materials.
Integrated engineering
ON's powder processing equipment can be redesigned to fit inside gloveboxes or isolators, providing a more customised processing solution and improved ergonomics. With On, the client can be supported during the whole process from Big-Bag, sack tip, to mixer (and or) mill including feeders and transfer (high accuracy dosing) in a “one stop shop” concept.
Downflow booths for li-ion battery safety
Downflow Booths (single pass or recirculation) offer a pragmatic and ergonomically advantageous solution to containment requirements. They offer a safe working zone for the protection of staff from the harmful particulates generated during manual handling of battery materials. They are used for sampling, weighing, sieving, conveying, etc. of powders, and containing individual process steps in an existing production line (factory) lay-out from lab scale to production scale.
ON’s downflow booths operator exposure levels of <100μg/m3 (task duration) which can be improved with the use of flexible or rigid high containment screens to below 10μg/m3 (task duration). This means that you can cover OEB 3 to OEB 4 with these containment technologies.
ON can offer an extensive range of standard and bespoke downflow booth solutions; with or without integrated equipment.
Bespoke containment equipment
Working closely with clients, ON provides an optimal containment solution which takes into consideration not just the product being handled, but also the operating procedures and exposure duration. Isolators can be extended (general size, number of glove ports, transfer hatches) depending on individual requirements. Downflow Booths can be individualized to cater to various requirements in the manufacturing process of li-ion batteries.
OEB 4 & OEB 5
In connection with containment solutions, two factors are used to indicate the appropriate technological solution: OEL (Occupational Exposure Limit) and OEB (Occupational Exposure Band). OEB (hazard banding) quickly and accurately assigns chemicals into specific categories, which correlate to a range of OELs designed to protect worker health, while OEL expresses regulatory values which indicate levels of exposure that are considered to be safe (health-based) for a chemical substance in the air of a workplace. Depending on the Time Weighted Average (TWA) as well as the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), containment during battery production can range from OEB 3 to OEB 5. OEB 5 corresponds to an exposure (and thus an OEL) of less than 1 µg/m3.
