Guardtech open partnership with Dry Air to offer game-changing dry room facility installations for Battery industry and beyond

THE GUARDTECH GROUP have opened up a partnership with dry room specialists Dry Air Ltd to take the UK Battery industry’s facility installations to exciting new heights.

The Suffolk-based cleanroom construction specialists have been installing controlled environments across a wide range of applications for 25 years now.

From Aerospace to Medical Device manufacturing, Optical provision to Pharmaceuticals, there aren’t many industries Guardtech haven’t provided cleanrooms for.

And whilst they have forayed into the world of battery tech on occasion over that time, the new arrangement to work alongside Dry Air Ltd is set to be a game-changer for both companies.

Guardtech are set to combine their overall cleanroom envelope expertise with Dry Air’s niche HVAC and sealing specialism to create a ‘dry room supergroup’.

The partnership has already borne fruit – with a stunning 60sqm dry room installation in Bristol for dry battery electrode coating experts Anaphite.

Despite being a relatively modest facility size-wise, the project has seen Dry Air, with support from Guardtech, deliver a room that achieves remarkable results.

“It’s based on a -65C supply rate with a -40C return,” says Phil Laking, Dry Air’s Design Consultant. “During testing, whilst the space was unoccupied, we achieved -63C, which is pretty darn good. We ended up with eight grams of infiltration, which is incredibly, incredibly low.”

But how exactly do they achieve such incredible performance?

“Well, the methodology is obviously Dry Air’s intellectual property and that proprietary knowledge is part of our USP,” Laking continues.

“But we can say at the very least that it’s all down to specially engineered, advanced sealing techniques that have been tested, honed and perfected over a number of years in the industry. These enhanced sealing techniques far, far exceed the industry standard.

“The infiltration, or leakage if you like, is so incredibly minimal, it’s gone beyond three decimal places in terms of recording the data.”

But what is it that’s so special about these sealing techniques? Laking attributes “attention to detail” as one of the core tenets of the methodology.

“With our process, which is far more technical and sophisticated than standard cleanroom sealing methods, it’s all about how you build up the layers and the attention to detail you give to that,” he adds.

“So when it comes to cleanroom installations, you might lay a floor track down, lay your cleanroom panels in and then seal the inside and outside panels. But what we do is a far more thorough and complex multi-stage process. There are more silicone beds, more sealing points. There’s sealing on the inside and the outside, behind the trims, on top of the trims, Roxtec gas-tight fittings and then on top of all that, various inside secrets that we can’t divulge as well as our own propriety ducting penetrations.”

Laking and his team, who used the Anaphite project to train the Guardtech Installation Engineers in the Dry Air methods, was keen to stress just how critical it was that their thorough process was replicated to the nth degree.

He says: “The reality is, when it comes to dry rooms and the level of complexity that’s involved, if you don’t follow our procedures, you can potentially lose air underneath the floor track – so it’s critical that you do everything the right way in order to get that incredible low dewpoint that we achieve.

“If you look at the suspension rods alone – between the ceiling and lower suspension beams – you’ve got spreader plates on both sides with silicone in between all the plates.

“It's all about attention to detail and committing thoroughly to that multi-stage approach to sealing – there's about four-and-a-half times more silicone in one of our dry rooms than in a standard cleanroom build.”

Given the extremely high level of sealing that the rooms have, it also means the facilities operate as ‘green solutions’ – which is ideal for potential clients looking to meet new regulations and standards pertaining to energy efficiency.

“Obviously, ultimately, the tighter the room, the less it costs to run – it doesn't take as much energy to run. So it's an energy efficient solution,” Laking adds.

“We pulled the room down in under 30 minutes, which for a single rotor system is completely unheard of. Normally you need half a day or so to get there and to and stabilise. If we’d utilised our dual rotor tech, we could pull a room that size down in 15-20 minutes. This allows the client to shut the unit down more frequently, so you don't have to run it all the time out of hours and on weekends.

“With traditional single rotors, because obviously they're nowhere near as good as dual and the pull-down time is so long, you more or less have to leave them running all the time. But we've managed to overcome that challenge by sealing the room to a whole new level, and that in turn has allowed us to have much, much shorter pull-down times.”

Laking is excited about the future of the new Dry Air-Guardtech partnership and what it will mean for Battery technology and research, adding that there is a “greater and greater requirement for drier and drier spaces”.

And he was full of praise for the Guardtech team that worked so effectively with Dry Air to deliver that stunning Anaphite project.

“We were supported by two experienced Guardtech Installation Engineers on this project – who were extremely well versed in best practice when it comes to cleanroom installations,” he concludes. “But because this job was all about introducing them to our unique dry room sealing techniques, we used this as an opportunity to train the Guardtech team in the way we do things. So it was a great opportunity for them to learn new skills that will help to level up the teams on both the Guardtech and Dry Air sides of the partnership – which in turn elevates the provision we can offer to a wider client base.

“They worked hard and did everything we required of them – so we’re really happy with how the relationship has taken off.

“Now the Guardtech team have that training, we’re looking to forge a strong dry room turnkey partnership, where we design and manage the HVAC side of things and Guardtech build the room. That way the client gets the best of both worlds – in terms of elite-level skills and experience across the full spectrum or dry room design & build.”

For more information on the Guardtech Group, email sales@guardtech.com, call 0330 113 0303 or visit www.guardtechgroup.com.