Session 4

FM Property Loss Prevention 7-112: Mitigating Risks in Lithium-Ion Battery Manufacturing and Storage

This presentation will be on the new FM Property Loss Prevention Data Sheet 7-112, Lithium-ion Battery Manufacturing and Storage. Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere, from electric cars to tablets to lawnmowers to many more devices. Incidents involving lithium-ion batteries have been all over the news, when they catch fire, explode or both. Lithium-ion battery fires have become an emerging resilience challenge for global businesses. Yet for years, even as the drive to greener energy solutions sparked a surge in lithium-ion battery adoption, the industry lacked comprehensive loss prevention standards. Data Sheet 7-112 is the first to focus on manufacturing and storage of lithium-ion batteries and offers loss prevention recommendations rigorous engineering and research as well as testing at FM’s research facilities in West Glocester, Rhode Island and Norwood, Massachusetts. The presentation will provide an overview of the lithium-ion batteries and manufacturing process and the associated fire and explosion hazards, and will explain the recommendations for battery storage and battery manufacturing and highlight the importance of pre-incident and emergency response planning.

Neil Chaudhuri, FM Global

Neil M. Chaudhuri, P.Eng. is the Operations Chief Engineer for FM – Canada Operations and has nearly 20 years of experience in loss prevention and risk management. FM is a global commercial property insurance company that has been practicing for nearly 200 years. FM partners with their clients and will assess and engineer risk at client sites to help prevent and mitigate loss using state-of-the-art loss prevention engineering and research as well as providing risk transfer and insurance. Neil is a technical resource for engineers across Canada and visits insured locations in a variety of industries with complex risks with the engineers to help come up with risk improvement solutions.