CREW Jacksonville Visits Saft

CREW Jacksonville held a tour of the new 235,000 square foot Lithium Battery plant “SAFT” at Cecil Commerce Center on Tuesday, September 20, 2011.  The program began at 11:00 at the Commerce Center’s Conference Center.  Dixie Contract Carpet, Inc. was the sponsor of the event.  Catering was by Sonny’s Bar BQ.

The event commenced with CREW Jacksonville Laura Gonzales’ opening remarks and recognition of CREW’s sponsors.  Suzanne Cortina from King Engineering gave the Invocation and Pledge.  Maryanne Hewitt from Dixie Contract Carpet gave a short presentation on the sponsoring company including that they were the flooring contractor on the SAFT building project.  She also showed a video of a custom logo installation at FSCJ Deerwood campus.

Peter Denoncourt joined other SAFT colleagues to welcome the group.  He gave a brief history of SAFT and an explanation of the power capabilities of their battery technologies as well as their new building including a video of all sectors of the company.

There was a question and answer session with Peter wherein he talked about the 279 new jobs SAFT is bringing to the Jacksonville area and how most of those which have been filled were filled with local individuals.  He also talked about the one-mega-watt of power that is produced by their solar panel installation on their roof.  This installation is the largest solar panel installation in the Southeastern United States.

The tours ensued in groups to the factory.  Most of the manufacturing of the batteries is performed in an encapsulated space with tight environmental controls.  Relative humidity is kept at nearly 1%.  Employees who work in this environment must do so in short increments as their skin can start drying out (chapped lips, itchy noses).  The groups were taken through the entire battery manufacturing process from copper and aluminum sheets thinner than a piece of hair, to coating, coiling, capping and containing, helium testing and transport by robotic vehicle to storage racks.  Most of the battery making is performed by robots.  Human interaction is contained to the first few stages of production.

SAFT has international presence in the market.  They have even supplied the longest running lithium battery that is in some satellites in space!  The event was exciting and informative!