verting AC current into the DC current needed to charge a
battery, explains Steve Spaar, marketing director-Americas
for the battery maker EnerSys. They also require large
transformers that include costly commodities like steel and
copper.
High-frequency charging technology, which uses a different type of switching componentry, doesn’t require
large transformers. These chargers have an efficiency rating
of at least 90 to 92 percent and many are even higher, Spaar
says. Fleets that use this technology typically see slightly
lower electric bills. Electric utilities like these high “power
factor” chargers, and many are willing to give a rebate to
the end user for purchasing them, Spaar says. Buyers also
can get LEED credit for installing these efficient charging
systems.
There’s no question that high-frequency chargers are
becoming more prevalent, says Dan Dwyer, vice president
and general manager of Sackett Systems, a manufacturer
of battery handling equipment. “About 80 percent of the
systems we’ve installed this year have some sort of high-frequency chargers involved,” he says. For those installations, his company has had to modify the racking configuration in its multilevel battery changing systems because
most high-frequency chargers have a smaller footprint
and are mounted differently than traditional equipment,
he says.
Concerns about electricity costs are encouraging lift
truck fleet managers to reconsider not just how but when
they charge their batteries, says Arun Patel, president of
Access Control Group, a provider of asset management
solutions for lift truck fleets. Charging during peak hours
when electricity rates are highest, especially during the
summer, can raise costs, he points out. By collecting and
analyzing battery usage data, managers may find that they
don’t need to charge every battery at the same time or that
some batteries are getting little enough use that they could
be charged at night instead, he notes.
For more information …
Looking for a supplier of batteries, charging systems, handling equipment, or monitoring systems?
Here are just some of the many companies that
offer these products.
▪ Access Control Group ( www.assetor.net)
▪ Aerovironment ( www.avinc.com)
▪ Ametek ( www.ametek.com)
▪ Applied Energy Solutions
( www.appliedenergysol.com)
▪ Battery Watering Technologies
( www.batterywatering.com)
▪ BHS Battery Handling Systems ( www.bhs1.com)
▪ Douglas Battery ( www.douglasbattery.com)
▪ East Penn Manufacturing
( www.dekabatteries.com)
▪ Ecotality ( www.ecotality.com)
▪ EnerSys ( www.enersys.com)
▪ Flow-Rite ( www.flow-rite.com)
▪ Hawker Powersource
( www.hawkerpowersource.com)
▪ IBP ( www.ibpmidwest.com)
▪ Materials Transportation Co.
( www.mtcworldwide.com)
▪ Motive Energy ( www.motive-energy.com)
▪ Multi-Shifter ( www.multi-shifter.com)
▪ Philadelphia Scientific ( www.phlsci.com)
▪ Sackett Systems ( www.sackett-systems.com)
2. Regulatory restrictions will increase. Battery
charging systems have come under scrutiny in California,
where the California Energy Commission has proposed a
regulation that would ban the sale of certain types of chargers in the state. The rule would apply to both consumer and
industrial chargers.
The commission believes that charging devices that more
efficiently convert AC electricity from the power grid to DC
electricity stored in the battery will greatly reduce the bil-
lions of kilowatt hours of wasted energy generated by bat-
tery chargers in California each year. According to the com-
mission’s draft proposal, the regulation would require all
chargers to shut off the flow of electricity after the battery
has been fully charged. It would also set standards for the
charge return factor (the amount of energy applied to a bat-
tery compared to the amount extracted from it) as well as
for the efficiency in converting high-voltage AC to lower-
voltage DC, power losses occurring in circuitry during
charging, how well a charger synchronizes with the electric
utility’s 60 Hz cycle, and the amount of power the device
draws to keep a battery at full charge. Finally, it would
require that the charger draw no power when no battery is
attached and the charger is in standby mode.
3. Battery rooms will get “lean.” Lean systems are
becoming ubiquitous in manufacturing, and lean processes
have been making headway in logistics and warehousing. So
why not in the battery room? Lean is all about the systematic elimination of waste. Of the eight wastes that lean
processes address, six (transportation, inventory, motion,
people, waiting, and defects) exist in battery rooms, says
