DC Velocity - August 2016

52 DC VELOCITY AUGUST 2016 www.dcvelocity.com
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Advanced Charging Technologies’ (ACT) Quantum and Power Designers USA’s PowerCharge.NET comprehensive solutions, both of which monitor, report on, and manage batteries as well as chargers. (Many other products on the market monitor battery performance remotely; most track a more limited range of functions.)

2. Monitoring beyond the battery itself. Traditionally, exterior parts and components that aren’t part of the forklift battery itself have been monitored by visual checks and physical tests during scheduled maintenance. Now, we’re starting to see ongoing monitoring and remote data collection for such items.

One example is charge cables, which can suffer wear and tear while the lift truck is in use and from being plugged and unplugged repeatedly. Waiting for scheduled maintenance can be risky. “If they are not properly maintained, cables can suffer damage and even melt, which can affect the trucks and the goods, and most importantly, the safety of the driver,” notes Jonah Teeter-Balin, director of product marketing for AeroVironment. To prevent such incidents, AeroVironment developed Connect RX for its PosiCharge ProCore chargers. This technology monitors cable connectors during charging sessions, shutting down the charge session and alerting the user if abnormalities are detected.

3. Becoming easier to use, control, and maintain. Two growing challenges for warehouses and DCs—the need to minimize downtime in a 24-7 operation and the difficulty of hiring and retaining qualified equipment technicians— are prompting manufacturers of forklift battery chargers to take some creative steps to address those concerns. Here are three examples:

; A notable trend at the Modex 2016 trade show earlier this year was the shift toward simpler, more visually intuitive controls for material handling equipment. The aim is to make it easier for users to read, understand, program, and maintain equipment, requiring less specialized knowledge and simplifying the procedures. One example is AeroVironment’s mobile app for its PosiCharge ProCore series of chargers. Through the app—the first for forklift chargers, the company says—users can set up new units, configure and update settings, view real-time information, and download data from the charger using a smartphone running iOS or Android. The intuitively designed app also has the ability to save and repeat settings, which eliminates the need to repeat steps and screens to set up or reprogram multiple chargers.

; Modular designs provide a high degree of flexibility
while essentially eliminating downtime. This approach
offers so many advantages, in fact, that it’s fast becoming
the norm. One example is Power Designers USA’s aptly
named Revolution series of high-frequency chargers. The
chargers’ multiple “plug and play” power modules let users
scale the number of modules up or down to match the
needed power output. And because each module operates
independently, if one stops working, the others continue
charging, so charging is not interrupted. According to
Power Designers, which says it was the first to develop
modular chargers, replacing a module is a simple matter of
turning a few screws, re-energizing the charger, and enter-
ing a few keystrokes on a control panel. Other manufactur-
ers that now offer modular char-
gers include Hawker Powersource,
Advanced Charging Technologies,
Eagle Eye Power Solutions, and
Enatel/DC Power Technologies, to
name a few.

; Advancements in technology are also making it possible to use one charger for batteries of multiple types and sizes. Traditionally, Prestolite Power, for example, developed its Auto Range Curve software for its Eclipse II charger, which allows the charger to identify the number of cells as well as accept a minimum and a maximum amp-hour capacity for the cell size. With the software, the charger evaluates the battery’s response to the charge current and properly adjusts the curve throughout the charge cycle.

Other examples of chargers that can automatically recognize all types of lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries and charge the batteries to the proper setting include Power Designers’ Revolution charger paired with its PowerTrac battery monitor and AeroVironment’s ProCore chargers.

4. Revealing information that was not previously available. For users of the very small batteries in mobile devices like scanners and RFID (radio-frequency identification) readers, it’s always been tough to quickly and accurately tell a “good” battery from a “bad” one. For instance, users may assume that a battery that charges quickly is a good one, but it could be charging quickly because it’s older and has less capacity. As a result, they might have to change batteries during a shift or, because they think the problem is with the device itself, they might unnecessarily send the scanner