In the airfreight and logistics sector, ‘Dangerous Goods’ are defined as any material with the potential/capability of posing a severe health and safety risk to passengers/crew. This includes explosives such as fireworks and ammunition, flammable liquids/gases/solids such as paints, perfumes and oxygen cylinders, and corrosives such as cleaning chemicals.

The United States Department of Transportation has categorised all potentially dangerous goods into nine classes based on their physical and chemical properties. Due to the volatile nature of these hazardous materials and the potential risk to passengers and crew, special care must be given to the correct identification of such materials as well as taking appropriate measures for the handling of the same.

Lithium batteries are included in ‘Class Nine; Miscellaneous Hazardous Materials and Lithium Batteries’. They are considered a dangerous good as they contain both fuel and an ignition source within the batteries. Another concern with regards to lithium batteries is its potential to go into thermal runaway, i.e. a chemical reaction that could occur within the battery that results in an uncontrolled rise in both pressure and temperature, causing the battery to expel its contents and create enough heat to trigger adjacent batteries also to go into thermal runaway.

“Over the last few years, both AmSafe Bridport and Nordisk Aviation have seen an increased demand for our fire containment solutions, in particular, those that can contain lithium battery fires,” Audun Rør, President of AmSafe Bridport, stated.

“We are also experiencing an increased number of enquiries/questions from airlines and cargo operators, as they are keen to mitigate risks in their cargo operations but are unsure which solution is best suited for their operations as there is currently no regulation or standard providing guidance on what type of product is acceptable for the transport of lithium batteries.

“Both AmSafe Bridport and Nordisk Aviation are currently working with the SAE committee on drafting a standard for lithium battery testing for air cargo transport and are supporting this activity by sharing our expertise and previous test data on lithium battery fire testing.”

Designed to protect

Currently, airlines and cargo operators are concerned with risks related to both declared and undeclared dangerous goods.

Ensuring that policies and procedures are in place to correctly identify, package and handle dangerous goods is crucial in cargo operations, as well as ensuring that all relevant personnel are trained in these policies and procedures.

There have been reports in the industry of incidents caused by both deliberate and unintentional non-compliance to the regulations. Unintentional non-compliance stems from a lack of training and awareness of the regulatory requirements and the risk to human lives associated with such non-compliance. Conducting safety risk assessments in cargo operations, taking into account this risk of non-compliance (both deliberate and unintentional), and taking necessary risk mitigation measures such as increased surveillance activities are also essential to ensuring safety and security when moving dangerous goods.

“Initially, we worked closely with airlines and cargo operators to understand their current operations and challenges in order to set a baseline for our fire containment products,” Rør outlined.

“We then worked closely with our suppliers to develop high-performance materials and tested these materials both at component level as well as at full-scale level to verify material performance.

“Continuing to work with dedicated air cargo carriers and aircraft OEMs (Original Aircraft Manufacturers) over the years, we were able to develop operationally and economically viable products, taking into account critical parameters such as durability, weight, ease of operation, etc.

“We have conducted extensive testing on the materials we use on our products, including various environmental, weathering and degradation tests to ensure our fire containment products are suitable for the wide range of operating conditions seen in air cargo transport.

“Over the years, we have successfully tested our fire containment products with battery types most widely used in the industry, in varying quantities and configurations to verify that our products are capable of containing a fire caused by lithium batteries. We often use input from airlines to test real-life scenarios.

“By changing test parameters such as the state-of-charge of batteries, battery quantity, battery chemistry, positioning within the cover/container etc. we have observed how each parameter affects the outcome of the test. We use this data to continue our journey of research and development to continuously improve our products and support the industry with our learnings.”

The post Making airfreight safe appeared first on Air Cargo Week.