New Battery Offers Opportunity Charging Benefits
11th January 2017
EnerSys® has coupled its new 4-post IRONCLAD® battery with the benefits of opportunity charging to meet the tough demands of heavy duty applications. This powerful combination offers forklift users the benefits of safe charging, no battery handling and increased truck availability.
Reflecting the growing demand in Europe for Zero Battery Change℠ (ZBC) solutions, to reduce manual handling and enhance productivity, the bringing together of EnerSys battery technology and its monitoring and charging systems optimises all potential for efficiency.
A key component of the ZBC concept is opportunity charging, i.e. charging the battery at opportune moments during the working pattern as opposed to exhausting it entirely and then changing it out. Martin Walsh, Senior Product Manager EMEA of EnerSys Motive Power commented: “We are a charger manufacturer as well as a battery manufacturer and this fact, coupled with our Wi-iQ® battery monitoring technology, allows us to tune the charging profile of the system to the requirements of the customer and the application. Plus, our fast opportunity charging system can re-charge 25% of the battery’s power within one hour, which is an industry leading performance.”
Heavy duty applications unsurprisingly place heavy demands on the battery. High power output is needed to lift goods up to 10 tonnes in weight into position with speed and accuracy. The new IRONCLAD® battery’s 4 post design allows for currents in excess of 320A to be more easily delivered from the battery as the current is split across the posts. Therefore a 320A current is split, with 160A coming from each post, which means less stress on the pillars, increased safety through lower temperatures with less risk of damage or melting. The reduced stress on the battery components also delivers a longer lifecycle.