What are the most important considerations when building a new cleanroom or dry room facility for EV battery manufacturing?

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The market for lithium-ion battery manufacturing is growing rapidly. The global lithium-ion battery market is about to be $44.5 billion in 2022 and will reach $135.1 billion by 2031. As experts in cleanroom design and supply Nicos Group offers solutions for cleanroom and dry room systems for EV battery production. We have completed numerous projects in the stringent and highly regulated pharmaceutical and semiconductor industries (ISO 1, 5, ISO 7, ISO 8) and are currently working with US automotive industry in Michigan. We have successfully applied our cleanroom experience to the emerging demands-and timelines- of the automotive industry. Listed below are the main architectural considerations when staging a project for EV battery manufacturing.

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1.       EV Battery Manufacturing Facility - Key Considerations

Is the battery plant facility an upgrade, retrofit, relocation or new construction?

Is the shell a host building or new construction?

Are any of the cleanroom walls adjacent to exterior building walls-exposed to outdoors?

Do any of the existing building columns interfere with the cleanroom layout?

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These are typically questions that we will ask in the first introductory phases to understand at what point in the process the project typically is. The above can add significant time in the process if not addressed.  So, our advice is that before starting the battery cleanrooms and dry rooms planning the above should already be addressed. Nicos engineers can consult you on “best practices” based on our experience if some decisions still need to be flushed out.

2.       Walkable Cleanroom Ceilings - Key Considerations

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What is the clear height above the cleanroom ceiling? Are there any obstructions?

What is the distance between the cleanroom ceiling and the bottom of the existing building steelwork and/or ceiling above?

Can the cleanroom ceiling be supported from the existing building steelwork?

What is the loading capacity of the existing building steelwork?

 Clean and dry room ceilings in our experience are a crucial point of consideration when building a battery manufacturing plant. Lithium-ion battery manufacturing processes typically require high ceilings to be able to house the large equipment needed for battery industrial processes. When working with cleanroom and dry room construction vendors, make sure to inquire how they are planning to deal with the high ceiling structures, and what is their experience with these types of projects.

Nicos Group has experience working with cleanroom ceilings up to 22-24 ft, which are developed by putting together two vertical panels of up to 12ft. This is done to make sure the panels are manageable enough to be shipped and assembled by the installation operators. Nicos can supply two types of ceiling options, which can be both walkable and non-walkable depending on the requirements. In automotive cleanroom projects our walkable option is usually the best choice. Our walkable ceiling solutions also provide the hangers to support the ceiling from an existing structure.

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‍Hermetic false suspended ceiling:

Flexible and easy to assemble, these can be installed before or after cleanroom wall installation. These sit on top of the walls or leaving the walls protruding above ceiling, room by room. This kind of false ceiling is made with laminated sandwich panels with many types of insulation based on client needs.  All sides are closed by aluminum frame. The result is a perfectly smooth and coplanar clean room surface that is very easy to clean. The bearing aluminum profile is housed by clicking-in between panels. There is a threaded tension bar, with an adjustment ring, to be fastened to the existing ceiling.

 Framework for cleanroom filters and light fixture

·        Certified walk on ceiling panel 35 lb in one square foot (live load)

·        Minimization of joints

·        Top quality aesthetics

·        High mechanical resistance

·        Cleanroom ceiling 5 years’ guarantee

T-Grid cleanroom ceiling

Nicos unique T-grid walls on clean room suspended ceilings consists of a load-bearing structure made of aluminum suitable to support ceiling panels, lights and filter units. The T-grid is supported by threaded tension rod with adjustable turnbuckles that are fastened to the overhead support at 4 intervals. There is a selection of two standard panel sizes: 2′x2′ (610 x 610 mm) or 2′ x 4′ (610 x 1210 mm). Tiles for Nicomac clean room ceilings can be designed to be flush to the grid. Depending on the type of tile used, the entire clean room ceiling system can be certified as walk on (single load of 35 Lb. in a square foot) false ceiling and situated in the most unfavorable static position.

Advantages of Nicos walk on T grid system:

·        T grid system doesn’t require cut outs and frame for filters and light fixtures

·        Flexibility while positioning filters and light fixtures

·        Flush to the grid walk on system

·        8 mm Ø threaded tension rod

·        Heavy duty walk-on grid

Is a raised floor system required ?

Nicos Group has supplied several projects where raised floor system was required for airflow purposes.

See example below.

3. Cleanroom / Dry Room Layout Design - Key Considerations

Do you already have a layout of the facility?

Are all the rooms in the manufacturing process already defined and labeled?

Are airlocks for personnel and equipment entry already included in the layout?

In order to provide a cost any estimate, we require a layout or drawing of the clean rooms and dry rooms. This is useful to calculate the total amount of material needed for the project inclusive of wall panels, covings, ceiling grid and panels. A facility of 10,000 sq ft that only has two rooms will be different than the equivalent size facility that has 10 rooms, and the costs will differ greatly based on that. Additionally, other design considerations including number of doors, windows and other accessories.  These should already be considered in the initial layouts (more on this in section below). Lastly, the cleanroom layout should already include a decontamination airlock area for personnel and potentially also human and material passthroughs. You can read more about the Nicos offering, including fully integrated gowning rooms with many accessories to customize and complete your cleanroom environment, here:

Project design and drawings are prepared in house based one existing documents – or if needed by an on-site survey carried out by Nicos Engineers [if you need an onsite visit for your lithium battery plant facility, please contact us here and we can plan a visit]

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Nicos will supply, as standard, the following project drawings:

1.      Rooms layout

2.      Walls front view

3.      Ceiling layout

4.      Cleanroom Wall Systems- Key Considerations

What type of wall system is required for battery manufacturing?

Due to the sensitive nature of their products, cleanrooms facilities for EV battery production, similar to facilities for microelectronic and semiconductor applications, require stringent environmental controls. These clean rooms also house extremely precise and expensive equipment. Hence, any deficiencies in the cleanliness specifications may affect the entire production process. For these reasons, our flexible wall system is commonly required. Nicos complies with these requirements and can offer:

• High mechanical resistance wall
• Anti-static wall system to maintain standards for     semiconductor fabrication
• Removable walls to ease transfer of large     equipment, as well as in areas designated to accommodate future expansion

What skin panel for the clean and dry room panels? What insulation?

 Nicos can work with a high variety of skin panels and insulations:

‍Wall Panels Skin

·        High Quality Galvanized powder-coated steel sheet

·        uPVC (Unplasticized PVC) coated steel sheets

·        HPL - High Pressure Laminate 4 mm. thick

·        Aluminum steel sheets

·        Stainless steel AISI 304 sheets

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‍Glass Walls

Glass walls are adopted in the battery manufacturing industry whenever it is necessary to inspect the rooms without having to enter. This lowers the risk of contamination. Furthermore, glass walls allow greater illumination to the cleanroom areas creating a more comfortable environment in which to work. Operators tend to be more productive when wall system is glass.  Glass also results in a more high-end look for your cleanroom.  This conveys quality when showcasing to stakeholders. Glass walls will typically end up being the more costly solution.

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Cleanroom Wall Panels Insulation Materials

HC Honeycomb aluminum

RW Rock wool

PUR High density polyurethane

PIR Polyisocyanurate

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What codes and standard are there for the panels?

Nicos panels can meet both Class A (ASTM E84) and FM compliance.

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5.      Cleanroom Doors and Windows - Key Considerations

How many doors will be required? Single or double? Swinging or sliding? Automatic or manual?

Nicos doors are high quality and well suited for EV battery manufacturing. They come with rounded profiles, no visible screws, double gaskets in the frame and in the leaf with automatic drop seal at floor allowing a full tight decontaminated system. Door air-tightness is a fundamental aspect for the calculation of the ventilation system in a clean room. In a clean and dry room, the only point of air loss is through the doors. Nicomac designs door profiles using a CFD software to minimize losses and eliminate contamination. Nicos standard cleanroom doors come with observation windows in tempered glass. Mechanical interlocking kits for groups of doors, equipped with electric lock and light indicator, are also available.

Common and often used in the semiconductor and lithium battery manufacturing facilities are automatic roll-up doors. Cleanroom roll-up doors supplied by Nicos are designed to separate over pressured clean and dry environments.  The special sealing ensures controlled pressure leakage allowing ventilation systems and air purification to operate correctly. Furthermore, they provide guarantees on all surface cleaning ability and inspection for the cleaning process. They can be used on ISO 7 and ISO 8 cleanrooms, and are characterized by low maintenance and plug & play ease of installation.

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Please review Nicos different options for doors, and an overview on pros/cons and which doors are more suitable for your use case here

Will you have windows on any of the walls?

Windows on cleanroom walls can be useful both to give greater illumination in the working areas. They also convey a high-end look to your cleanroom which ultimately helps for presentation and quality when showcasing to stakeholders.

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All window units are double glazed and fit flush with both surfaces of the wall panel system (45mm). Each unit is constructed of two panels of 3+3 mm laminated safety glass. A layer of PVC film is laminated between two layers of glass. The window system is completely silicone

sealed and includes a micro-perforation profile with an integral silica gel moisture adsorption system to eliminate fogging. Rounded corners add to the strength of the window unit and enhance their appearance. Tempered glass (6mm) in place of the laminated glass is available upon request.

Nicos windows can be installed in existing clean rooms

• Fully     flush to the wall
• Unique     rounded corners available
• Double     glass and safety film
• Full     glass panels available
• Any size available
• No     condensation/fogging effect
• Safety glass

6.      Cleanroom Accessories - Key Considerations

Lastly, Nicomac can supply different devices flushed to the wall and integration of different type of accessories for EV battery cleanroom environments such as:

Airlocks

Pass through box

Lockers for gowning areas

Cross over benches

Cut outs and piping for cleanroom system

Light fixtures

HEPA filters

Electrical outlets and data ports

Air showers and hand washing devices

Clean and dry room monitoring parameters display

For some additional information and images of our clean and dry room accessories, see here

Contact us here to request our questionnaire/RFI template for what to consider when building a new battery manufacturing cleanroom and dry room facility (inclusive of Architectural, Mechanical, Engineering)

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Why Choose Nicos Group as your cleanroom vendor for your new battery manufacturing facility

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Nicos Group has been in the cleanroom business for over 15years designing, supplying and installing modular cleanrooms for certified (ISO5 through ISO 8) clean areas. We have applied the same concepts and approach that made us stand out as the go-to solution for quality in the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science industries. We have applied this experience to follow the stringent regulations for industrial cleanrooms and dry room in the manufacturing of batteries for the electric vehicle automotive industry.

Flexibility in Project Size

Nicos Group can work with you on projects from any size, ranging from smaller projects of 100 sq ft for R&D battery process manufacturing to 1,000,00+ sq ft large industrial battery manufacturing facilities.

Quality in details

A cleanroom where attention to quality and aesthetic details conveys a quality stamp and feel to all stakeholders involved: starting from your operators working day to day and feeling they are in a "special environment", to upper management, to your customers and to regulatory agencies inspectors. The same level of quality in details we put in our product and materials, we also put in our installation: our crew of highly tried installers are used to working in highly sensitive environments, from vaccine production facilities to hospital operating rooms, from DNA laboratories to aerospace component manufacturing facilities.

Scope of Supply

A modular cleanroom construction project is not only material supply: it means basic and detailed GMP design, jobsite management ,professional installation, validation and certification. Nicos Group can work with your team in any of the areas above, and we can guarantee that you will only be working with us throughout the whole project. From pre-sales discussions, to design, to production, to installation you will only be working with one stakeholder instead of multiple parties serving different parts of the value chain.

Speed of Execution and Flexibility in Installation

Time is of the essence for the majority of battery manufacturing plant projects.  We have been flexible in finding solutions with our stakeholders that can maximize speed of production (e.g., accelerate the production of standard panels while finalizing final touches in design phase), and splitting the installation project in multiple mobilization phases to both speed up the installation process.  We also ensure that if the first pieces of equipment start arriving, they can be stored in the sections already mobilized and installed. Furthermore, our Removable wall can help transfer of large equipment.

Experience, Experience, Experience

Project success typically comes down to small details, and how you deal and work around hurdles and challenges that arise in the project, coming from different stakeholders. At Nicos Group, with hundreds of cleanroom installations under our belt, we have probably seen and dealt with those issues before and can consult you and your stakeholders on the most efficient way to deal with them. Additionally, our pre-fab production approach ensures that the majority of the work is accomplished in production reducing amount of work is to be done on site.

Nicos has successfully completed more than 300 projects involving cleanrooms of all sizes and types, from very small to very large projects and from lower classes up to ISO 8 (Class 100,000).

Nicos is currently working with Michigan based GC on a new cleanroom and dry room facility project for a large automotive brand.  Based in Michigan, this is their newest battery manufacturing plant, with the targeted completion date in late 2023. We hope to be able to share more details when that project is completed.