GENERATORS, BACK-UP POWER & BATTERIES FEATURE
SAVING TIME, POWER AND WATER E
TPPL technology batteries from EnerSys are providing Daimler Mercedes-Benz with significant operational benefits, safety and lifetime cost savings compared with traditional alternatives
nerSys NexSys TPPL (thin plate pure lead) technology batteries have been
chosen by Daimler Mercedes–Benz as they offer fast charging, opportunity charging and zero battery change capabilities that deliver significant operational benefits, safety and lifetime cost savings compared with traditional flooded and gel battery alternatives. The NexSys range is suitable for an extensive range of vehicles including lift trucks, order pickers, pallet trucks, AGVs/laser guided vehicles and cleaning machines. Mercedes Benz in Bremen is the second
largest Mercedes automotive factory in Europe and produces more than 300,000 vehicles per year. Recently they built a new production hall with the aim of reducing the number of battery changes for their forklift fleet and closing the charging rooms in favour of decentralised charging near the production line. This posed a challenge however as
charging gases and acid aerosols cannot be allowed to contaminate the vehicle production environment, traditional flooded batteries couldn’t be used.
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY ALTERNATIVE The emergence of a new type of lead-acid battery using TPPL technology now offers a practical, affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional batteries and Lithium-ion designs. It offers significant operational benefits
including the ability to charge repeatedly from any depth of discharge (up to 80%) without affecting the condition of the
battery. Moreover, the increased reliability and elimination of water loss ensures that TPPL batteries are very low maintenance and cost-effective. EnerSys offered the solution with its
NexSys TPPL batteries with absorbed electrolyte as a virtually maintenance-free technology. As they are completely sealed the creation of oxyhydrogen is minimised and the formation of acid aerosols completely eliminated. TPPL builds on the proven capabilities of
traditional lead-acid batteries with some significant technological advances. In traditional lead-acid designs the positive and negative plates are typically over 4mm thick but with TPPL they are much thinner (circa 1mm). More TPPL plates can therefore be fitted in any given size of enclosure which in turn increases the total surface area available, providing inherently higher volumetric and gravimetric energy
ADVANTAGES OF POWER TOOLS WITH LI-ION BATTERIES
RS Components has announced availability of a wide range of power tools that use lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries from leading manufacturers such as Bosch, DeWALT and Makita. These are ideal as a replacement for tools that currently run on nickel- cadmium (NiCd) batteries which have been widely used in power tools for many years. Previously, the advantage of this type of cell was
that NiCd batteries would maintain a steady output voltage until they are almost completely depleted whereas the voltage offered by alkaline or lead-acid types, for example, will drop along with depletion of the battery. However, the cadmium used in this type of cell is both carcinogenic and highly toxic which has an impact on the environment when disposed in landfill. The EU Batteries Directive 2013/56/EU previously included an exemption for NiCd batteries used in power tools but this exemption has been
removed as of 31 December 2016 which means that new NiCd power tool batteries can no longer be made available to the market. Li-ion battery powered tools are not interchangeable with NiCd types so an upgrade in power tool will be required. Key advantages of Li-ion batteries include: no
memory effect; virtually no self-discharge; the ability to be recharged at anytime regardless of the current state of charge; and smaller size and lower weight compared to their equivalent NiCd versions. These advantages mean that manufacturers can create higher voltage and higher capacity batteries and therefore a longer run time without increasing the weight or size for the equivalent NiCd version.
RS Components T: 08457 201201
www.rs-online.com
Traditional flooded batteries could not be used as charging gases and acid aerosols cannot be allowed to contaminate the vehicle production environment
and power density than conventional units of the same size. A further significant difference with
TPPL is that the conductive grid is manufactured using lead that is much purer (typically 99.99% pure) than in conventional designs. This results in significantly reduced side reactions within the electrochemistry which leads to improvements in charge acceptance and cyclic capabilities of the batteries. It ensures the plates are much less likely
to corrode and have longer shelf-life while extremely high recombination levels ensure water losses during recharge are minimised to provide optimum life. A major advantage of this technology is
that the need to exchange a battery with a fully charged replacement at the end of the shift can often be eliminated. “In automotive manufacturing there is
always the problem that batteries must be changed,” says Enersys sales area manager Christian Wessolowski. “This takes time and is potentially dangerous, posing risk of injury to the operators.”
RECHARGING FOR SHORT PERIODS Instead the TPPL battery can be recharged for short periods whenever there is an opportunity such as when an operative is on a break or completing some task away from their vehicle. “We have on one side the power of a
conventional flooded lead acid battery, on the other the reduced maintenance of a gel battery used in a multiple shift operation,” continues Wessolowski. “All this comes associated with a rapid
charging system which brings the batteries back to full charge within the shortest time. By switching to the new battery technology over 24,000 battery changes at Daimler can be saved per year.” In addition to being cost-efficient, safer
and virtually maintenance-free, NexSys batteries are environmentally friendly. Up to 90% of the materials used in lead-acid batteries can be recycled. As Daimler found out, choosing TPPL technology resulted also in saving 21,750 litres of water, and 247,500 kwH of electricity. EnerSys is the only manufacturer to offer
batteries with TPPL technology for motive power applications.
T: 01633 590310
www.enersys.com
FACTORY EQUIPMENT | MARCH 2017 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57