In a discussion with authoritative designers in the battery manufacturing field, it was discovered that Japan’s M Battery Factory often experiences spontaneous combustion phenomena in ternary battery materials before production, yet the finished products show zero spontaneous combustion; whereas other peers frequently suffer spontaneous combustion accidents in finished products.
After a full day of technical review, two main causes were identified — metal contamination in materials and foreign substance intrusion in separator membranes — and the problems originated from the production process itself.

Metal micro-particles mainly invade through two pathways:
First, during pneumatic conveying, ordinary metal elbows, due to material impact and wear, release Fe, Cu, Cr and other metal ions and particles that mix into the material, leading to battery chemical short circuits and spontaneous combustion without warning.
In 2021, the global spontaneous combustion rate within lithium-ion battery factories was 0.1 PPM, about 70% of which was attributed to this cause.
Second, in plasma treatment of separator membranes, although the process is highly efficient (shortening process duration by more than 95%), provides excellent interfacial bonding strength (an increase of 25%–30%), and is environmentally friendly, the high-voltage and low-current environment causes electrode corrosion that generates metal debris, which is then firmly captured by the separator membrane with increased surface energy after treatment.
These two pathways are among the key causes that lead to battery spontaneous combustion.

In pneumatic conveying systems, traditional elbows are prone to wear, which causes a decrease in flow velocity (15%–20%) and blockage, as well as pressure fluctuations in the system (blower energy consumption increases by over 20%). Existing improvement methods all have limitations.

The Spiral Wear-Resistant Elbow developed by Taiwan San Fan Machinery Industrial Co., Ltd. has become the key to breaking this bottleneck.
With seamless smooth design and Bernoulli’s principle as its core, it achieves wear resistance through seamless flow channels, spiral chamber deceleration and pressure stabilization, and flow velocity matching design.
The pressure loss is less than 5 mmaq, the flange connection makes installation convenient, and multiple material options are available — including cast iron, aluminum alloy with hard-chrome wear-resistant coating, and full-ceramic models (the all-ceramic version achieves “zero metal micro-particle release”).

After adoption by M Company, the system has maintained 25 years without any shutdown caused by elbow wear.
The equipment lifespan was extended 15–20 times, conveying efficiency increased by 20%–35%, and energy consumption decreased by 12%–15%.Industry Insight:
The enhancement of ternary battery safety lies in the details.
This spiral wear-resistant elbow can reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion in finished products by more than 30%.
Battery enterprises must balance process advantages and risk control, integrate pneumatic conveying system design, and select scientific solutions to break through the safety bottleneck.