handling power sources l
Gus Whyte, sales director – national accounts and systems at Hoppecke Industrial Batteries, tells us why it's wrong to worry about forklift battery warranties.
Five-year hitch I
t's time fork lift truck battery users adopted a radical new approach to battery usage and moved away from the obsession with warranties or a battery having a set five-year life. A battery's life is not about guaranteeing against failure during a five-year period – it is to do with the amount of energy taken by the customer from the battery over the period of use. In short, we call this 'energy throughput'.
It is a popular misconception that forklift batteries have to be replaced after five years. This is simply not the case. The life of a battery is not influenced by time, it is affected by three key factors, one of which is energy throughput – the others are correct operation and maintenance. At the same time, we should also dispel a major misunderstanding that rapid charging of a battery affects the length of its life – it doesn't, again it affects the energy throughput. So it is very misleading to talk about warranties. What battery users should be concerning themselves with are energy throughput of the battery and its operational life. Indeed, for clarity it might be helpful to talk in terms of a 'guarantee' against the power that a battery provides and a 'warranty' against the product itself. So the battery warranty is not what users should focus on – it is the guaranteed battery life, ie its period of power provision.
Many end users wrongly believe that a battery is guaranteed against failure for five years. The truth is that every warranty says a battery will deliver 80% of its rated capacity against faulty workmanship or poor quality materials. This most definitely does not mean that users are covered by the warranty if the battery fails within five years. Besides, the well known 'bathtub graph' analysis shows that a product fails through bad manufacture or materials within the first six to eight months of its
26 ShD February 2012
www.PressOnShD.com
life or at the end of its life because of continuous usage. But between then the likelihood of failure because of a faulty product is extremely rare. In reality, just about the only reasons a battery would fail would be incorrect operation and poor standards of care. So thinking in terms of a five-year warranty is simply wrong.
Should a user complain that his battery failed within a five-year period, the manufacturer would more than likely point to incorrect usage – ie the end user had been over topping the battery, over-charging it, not operating it correctly, or the energy throughput had been higher than it should have been. The problem is that in most cases, nobody can prove or disprove such factors because normally there is no measure of energy throughput. But when a Hoppecke trak power high frequency charger is used, the power output of a battery is monitored and measured continuously so that this information is always available (also, the charger can be set so that it only charges the battery when needed so over- charging is not an option).
Similarly, with battery maintenance the user needs to have an accurate record of battery topping and cleanliness and know the correct time to change and charge a battery. This will enable the battery to be operated within the recommendations of the manufacturer. But not having this information to hand could mean increased costs, not only in financial terms but also in downtime and disruption.
That's why Hoppecke has come up with an approach that protects a company's investment for the anticipated period of use and not just for a fixed period of five years. The 'Power for Life' contract means that all maintenance of the battery – including topping, cleaning, safety checks and
supply of deionised water – is carried out by Hoppecke engineers. A continuous record of amps used ensures the operator always has an accurate energy throughput figure. Regular downloads from the charger also tell the user if the correct method of operation is being observed. Armed with this figure, the customer has a clear indication as to whether there is sufficient power in their operation, whether they have too much power, or even if the truck drivers are dealing with batteries the way they're supposed to. And if there are any potential problems in the system, the user can identify these at a very early stage so that remedial action can be taken before damage to the battery occurs. This means there would be less energy waste from the mains, less electricity used, less topping required – and all these factors would extend the life of the battery.
Incidentally, the customer's concept of energy throughput is almost always far higher than the actual throughput – they literally have no idea. But armed with accurate data that is constantly monitored and updated, users can have knowledge about their power systems that previously they could only guess at. When users know the actual energy throughput, they can plan properly. And with the true energy guarantee on a battery being based on the information provided by the charger – combined with the 'Power for Life' contract – in the vast majority of cases users would achieve a guaranteed power time period of considerably more than five years.
So it's time the industry moved on from the old fashioned way of thinking in terms of a five-year warranty or a cycle life warranty – and it's time it got the absolute maximum power and life out of forklift batteries. ●
www.hoppecke.co.uk
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