James Clark, secretary general of BITA, highlights the importance of new electrical technologies such as high frequency battery chargers. “They use less mains energy than conventional chargers, and permit time-efficient ‘opportunity charging’ over breaks.
Combine this with smarter warehouse layouts, which optimise specific lift truck capabilities and you are starting to ‘work smart’ to reduce your costs.” Tony Rooney of Briggs Equipment, points out that a typical 50 Hz battery will store around 35kw of energy and can take 12 hours to charge. “By increasing the efficiency of charging and improving battery run times, savings in electricity consumption of up to 22 per cent can be achieved.”
Exide Technologies has introduced a five-year warranty for its high frequency chargers. Nigel Harris of Exide says: “The main benefit is that they are more energy efficient and in these days of high energy prices and concern over carbon emissions, they are a worthwhile investment. Investment in our SP range of chargers can show significant cost benefits over a five-year period. The SP high frequency chargers are about one tenth the size of an equivalent conventional charger, meaning that valuable space is freed up for more profitable applications.”
Thorntons reduced energy consumption and costs at its main chocolate production site in Derbyshire by standardising on Hawker LifeTech high frequency battery chargers from EnerSys across its materials handling fleet. The company expects to achieve a two-to-one return on its investment over the lifetime of the contract. The decision to adopt Hawker LifeTech high frequency chargers from EnerSys was taken during 2007 when Thorntons appointed Linde as its truck supplier
