…then it’s Granada”

…then it’s Granada”

Anyone who gets to know Andreas Nunberg and Emanuel Wulgarellis will notice after just a few minutes that their profession is more than just a job for them. Their eyes light up when they report from practice and yes, you can say they are passionate about their job. And in the truest sense of the word. 

The two automotive experts offer training and advice on dealing with high-voltage systems in motor vehicles through their joint company WN-Technical Training. “I have been working with vehicle electrical systems since I could walk,” says Andreas Nunberg. When it comes to electric cars, the trained car electrician is in his element. This also applies to his business partner Emanuel Wulgarellis: “When electric cars came along, we quickly realized what we were facing,” says the trained plumber and painter. Because these vehicles are not without problems when it comes to fire hazards. Wulgarellis and Nunberg want to contribute to greater safety with their training. 

Some of them even do pony work. In field tests, together with the professional fire brigade, they set batteries or even entire vehicles on fire in order to learn from them (see pictures on page 44). "In the event of a short circuit, one cell in a lithium-ion battery reacts with the next. We have already done a lot of tests, but the cells always react differently in detail," explains Nunberg, who also reports on "highly toxic smoke" and gives the following rule of thumb: "The whiter the smoke, the worse." 

If the battery of an electric car catches fire, the vehicle could be completely burned out within a few minutes. "Now imagine that there is a woman sitting inside who also has to get two small children out of the child seat. That can get tight," points out Emanuel Wulgarellis. An engine fire in a diesel car, on the other hand, would be comparatively unspectacular and provide enough time for a fire department to respond.

Speaking of firefighting operations: A burning lithium-ion battery cannot be extinguished with any currently known fire retardant; you can only cool it until the chemical process has completely completed. This makes it all the more important that these cars are handled with appropriate care in the workshop. Especially since working on vehicles with high-voltage systems is inherently dangerous and appropriate preventive measures must be taken. This starts with training employees: Anyone who knows the dangers and trains appropriate work processes is on the safe side, emphasize Nunberg and Wulgarellis and are therefore dismayed by the reluctance of many workshop owners when it comes to the topic. “There are deficits in training and further education in Austria,” says Nunberg. “Unfortunately, something often has to happen before you can take action,” adds Wulgarellis. But there is no way around e-mobility anymore: “This is only really starting to happen for the workshops when used electric cars come onto the market,” says the expert, who offers workshops and fire departments high-voltage training at levels HV1, HV2 and HV3 as well as the necessary recurring refreshers. 
 

This is now also the case at the mobility campus of the Vienna State Guild for Automotive Technology, where the Automotive Academy organizes high-voltage courses. They are aimed specifically at companies that carry out work on vehicles with high-voltage systems and their components. “I am very pleased that we have succeeded in engaging experts in the field of high-voltage training with the experts from WN-Technical Training for these important training courses, whose reputation even resonates beyond the country’s borders,” says Stefan Böck from the Austrian Business Publishing House, who runs the Automotive Academy. 

The special thing about the Wulgarellis and Nunberg training courses is the strong practical focus. “We don’t show just any YouTube videos, but recordings from our own field tests,” emphasizes Wulgarellis, who doesn’t believe in online training for the high-voltage sector. Especially since his training includes work directly on the vehicle as well as the practical use of specific tools and measuring devices. It’s not for nothing that they call their HV1 training “HV1-plus”. 

“I see this again and again,” says Emanuel Wulgarellis: “Beforehand there is often insults, but when people then work directly on the systems, they often start to tremble!” It is precisely this fear that we want to take away from trainee mechanics and occasionally female mechanics. This starts with wearing the unfamiliar protective equipment, including a valuable tip about what you should wear under the rubber insulating gloves. 

The visual objects are also an important part of the training. Here is half a Kia battery (which, by the way, still weighs an impressive 200 kilos), there is the electric motor of an Opel. And over there, a part of a charging unit that was mounted behind the rear bumper of an electric car and suffered the following damage in an accident: a plug connection snapped. The problem: “The insulation was gone, but there was no contact error and therefore no obvious error message from the system,” as Nunberg emphasizes. Wulgarellis makes it clear what that can mean: “If someone splashes in with a Kärcher, then it’s Granada.” Specialist workshops must be made aware of all these sources of danger. In this respect, there is still a lot to do for the two high-voltage trainers and their team.