Lithium-Ion Propulsion Battery Occupational Safety: BEST PRACTICES AND FUTURE REQUIREMENTS

The global automotive industry is rapidly moving toward electricity for propulsion of personal and commercial mobility. Designing and assembling batteries in house is a priority for many automakers, which brings a new level of complexity and workplace safety challenges to the industry. Lithium-ion batteries powering today’s electric vehicles (EVs) are posing new electrical, thermal, and chemical hazards to the workforce. Battery design standards under IEC, SAE, IEEE, UL, and UN focus on operational and shipping safety of lithium-ion batteries while leaving worker safety to administrative controls such as training, insulated tools, and personal protective equipment (PPE). This article intends to identify some of the hazards posed by these large batteries. There are no lockout/tagout methods available to disable the high voltage inside these batteries. The modular design of some batteries allows for segmentation to reduce the level of hazard, but the trend of cell-to-pack design is making battery segmentation within the energy box challenging. Product design controls are the highest form of hazard elimination in the hierarchy of ­controls, and this article will discuss some aspects of design that can address these hazards and lays the foundation for industry’s best practices and potential future safety requirements in this emerging technology area of battery production, service, and recycling. This article will also discuss some administrative controls where hazard elimination via design solution is not feasible.