A lead acid test
February 1st 2005 H&SS group editor Ian Clay reports from Hawker Traction’s plant in Arras, France, on the latest developments in battery management and charging technology
Lead-acid industrial batteries are a commodity product which – although the major manufacturers won’t thank me for saying this – are pretty much the same regardless of who you buy from: The technology has remained virtually unchanged for 100 years and, up until the recent increase in the costs of lead and copper, the price hadn’t moved for a decade either.
Having said this, where battery manufacturers do differ is in the level of service that they provide to their customers.
Increasingly, this is seeing them move into providing battery charging and management systems – meaning they are involved in other issues that impact on the end user rather than ‘just’ supplying product.
Hawker Traction UK (the commonly used trading name of EnerSys Motive Power, a division of the giant EnerSys Inc, USA) is at the forefront of this movement and over the last couple of years has launched a range of battery chargers (both at the 50Hz and the HF – High Frequency level) and battery management systems.
Such developments can be seen in the company’s Freedom Package launched in the early part of 2004. Suited for normal to heavy-duty applications, the package comprises the Freedom battery and the energy efficient Easy.com HF charger. The battery is fitted with Hawker’s Easy Plus sensing device that, by effecting a data link with the charger, provides a host of diagnostic data on battery condition to ensure efficient charging – and establishes a platform for a comprehensive IT-driven battery management system to optimise battery performance and maximise truck uptime.
As ever, Hawker Traction’s development in this area has been led by the demands of the market. Larry Blackwell, director of sales Northern Europe said at the meeting in France that “There are more 24/7 operations in the UK than in the whole of the rest of Europe, therefore the real development in this area has been in the UK. Our advantage as a company is that we develop and make our own chargers as well as batteries.” Intelligent charging means that Hawker is now involved to a much greater extent with the end user. An intelligent charger will sense the type of battery and change the charging profile which results in more efficient charging. In old style systems there was no battery rotation while the new battery management systems will indicate to drivers which battery to take and can indicate this to the appropriate manager. Indeed, United Biscuits operates a system whereby an alarm is triggered if the wrong battery is taken. This type of information means that it is possible to improve the management of battery availability when busy periods/overtime are on the horizon. Larry Blackwell remembers “tremendous problems in the old days where batteries would only last three years.
Now they last five years minimum or even six or seven with correct maintenance”.
Looking to improve this impressive statistic (and the main reason for my trip to Arras) was the latest technology which Hawker is currently testing to facilitate remote battery management via the internet to the UK. Product development director, Momo Keshmir, introduced two new products: Easynet – a modem connection through which service engineers can download data from a site for analysis and; Easydiagsoft – which provides data analysis based on site information. “The real leap forward for Hawker is the easynet connection because now the engineers can monitor remotely using a dial up system,” says Keshmir. “This is something that no-one else has this in the business.” Emphasising the fact that this product is brand new technology is that the first Beta test site only went live (with Wincanton Logistics) in October 2004. Therefore much of the information about what benefits the system will provide is speculative. So the implications for the future of batteries/ battery management/forklift truck design and use is theoretical and untested. But it is certainly interesting to contemplate.
Eventually (and this is all theoretical) the system could lead to a common communication protocol as standard between the fork truck and battery manufacturers – with CANbus favoured by Keshmir. This makes a great deal of management information available to the end user regarding the truck and the battery and its charging routine. A main benefit is the potential for the reduction in maintenance costs with service being provided on-demand rather than on a timed, preventive basis. Topping the battery, for example, could be controlled automatically with no engineer required to visit the site at all.
The possibilities and applications for the technology are broad. However, at the present, the product is still in the testing stage. Should readers wish to help shape its future, I suggest contacting Hawker. More articles from Enersys Motive Power: | 
