battery-handling

How should you handle electric lift truck batteries for changeouts and recharging, especially considering these are heavy pieces of equipment? Typically, their weights range from 500 to 5,000 pounds. Batteries also tend to be large, boxy, and awkward to handle.

A powered, man-aboard battery changer that handles as few as 10 changes per day or as many as 100 daily can be economically justified, according to the manufacturer

Furthermore, their surfaces, especially the top, may be coated with corrosive battery acid from spills. Batteries may be housed in a compartment on the truck requiring removal from either the side or from the top. And, finally, you need to ask how often changeouts need to occur.

These factors all need to be considered in your selection of methods and equipment. You want handling and changing batteries to be as quick and efficient as possible. But you also want to avoid subjecting operators to fatigue from the process - particularly manual handling. And contact with acid and vented gases must be prevented as well as other risks of injury.

With an eye toward ensuring worker safety through performance standards, OSHA offers only very general advice on what types of handling equipment are appropriate. The federal agency's rules simply say that a "conveyor, overhead hoist, or equivalent materials handling equipment" be provided by the employer.

Short runs of conveyor facilitate horizontal transfer of batteries in and out of the vehicle's side compartment and in battery charging rooms.

A hoist, manually run or powered, can handle the vertical lifting of a battery out of the vehicle, if removal from the top is required. Then, a gantry crane or similar device to which the hoist is attached can manage the battery's horizontal movement.

Then there are the other, more specialized kinds of equipment that meet OSHA's "equivalency" requirement. Included are battery extractors and changers, transfer and transporter carts, and battery pullers. Roller conveyor - often unpowered, but sometimes powered - frequently is a key part of this equipment. It provides the mechanical means to achieve horizontal transfer of a battery. Within a forklift's side battery compartment, moreover, there may be roller conveyor to further assist in changeouts.

Which kinds of equipment you choose depend upon several factors. First, be sure you match up the handling device's capabilities and its load capacity to the sizes (dimensions) and weights of the different batteries and battery compartments in your electric truck fleet.

Suppose, for example, you consider using a simple, manual battery transporter with mechanical loading capability. Often, it is available in several models. These models may be sized for maximum battery widths that vary from 15 to 30 inches and in load capacities from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds. Selecting the one model specifically fitting the dimensions of your batteries and their weights is vital.

Side or top removal? If all trucks in the fleet require side removal of batteries, then this factor narrows your equipment selection to devices suitable for these types of changeouts. For trucks with top removal battery compartments, equipment that combines a hoist and crane will be necessary, however. Or your fleet may need equipment of both types.

One of the most important equipment selection factors to consider is the frequency of changeouts.

To start, you need to determine how hard you're running those lift trucks and how often their batteries discharge. The answers will help you focus on whether light-duty or heavy-duty equipment is necessary.

Simple, non-powered transporters with mechanical loaders for side-mounted batteries are among available light-duty devices. They're usually suitable for handling lighter batteries under conditions where infrequent changeouts for charging are needed. Similarly, a simple, hand-pushed transfer cart with casters can suffice for smaller batteries that only have to be removed and replaced in the truck every so often.

Battery tuggers and pullers for side removal are the next step up in handling efficiency. These devices, powered from an external source, generally operate as an extension to an electric walkie pallet truck. In effect, they turn the walkie into a portable battery changer; the walkie becomes the host to the battery handler. Alternatively, some tugger or puller models can be mounted onto a lift truck's forks to achieve portability with the forklift as host.

If equipped with electromagnets, tugger and puller devices can pull a battery out of its compartment by magnetically clamping onto it, easing the force needed for extraction. On other devices, the power of a vacuum or hydraulic device makes extraction easier.

If the battery needs to be lifted up and out of the forklift from a top access compartment, a hoist and gantry crane combination (Battery Handling Systems

Tugger/puller types of battery handlers can be worth the investment when fewer than 50 changeouts a day are typical, suppliers say.

For facilities with big forklift fleets and for those in 24/7 operation, powered man-aboard battery changers or extractors make more financial sense, however. A single-level power extractor that handles as few as 10 changes per day or as many as 100 daily can be economically justified, one supplier maintains. Changeout of a discharged battery and its replacement with a fully charged battery can occur in as few as 2 minutes.

Facilities that need to make from 20 to 250 changes daily may require more from the equipment and need more of an investment in racking in battery rooms. These operations can get maximum use of floor space in their battery rooms by stacking batteries in racking up to six units high during charging. A powered, man-aboard multilevel stacking changer pulls a discharged battery from the vehicle and later, in the battery room, lifts it up into a rack slot. Here it remains until charged by a charger built into the rack structure.

Battery maintenance and handling for electric forklifts also can require a number of other kinds of equipment. Traditional "wet" or flooded batteries need to be watered and washed, from time to time. Vendors offer specialized equipment to perform these steps. Battery rooms for wet cell charging also have to have showers for emergency use to wash the eyes and/or body in the event of accidental contact with battery acid. Workers also may need to wear face shields, aprons, and rubber gloves when handling batteries. And ventilation must be provided to waft away any gases vented from charging wet or flooded batteries.

EVERYTHING AN OPERATOR AND MECHANIC NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT FORKLIFTS AND LIFT TRUCKS. HELPFUL INFORMATION ON FORKLIFT AND LIFT TRUCK OPERATION, SERVICE,REPAIRS,TROUBLESHOOTING, MAINTANCE, OPERATOR'S USE, BATTERY MAINTANCE AND A LITTLE OF EVERYTHING TO KEEP A FORKLIFT RUNNING.

Tugger/puller types of battery handlers can be worth the investment when fewer than 50 changeouts a day are typical, suppliers say.

EVERYTHING AN OPERATOR AND MECHANIC NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT FORKLIFTS AND LIFT TRUCKS.
HELPFUL INFORMATION ON FORKLIFT AND LIFT TRUCK OPERATION, SERVICE,REPAIRS,TROUBLESHOOTING, MAINTANCE, OPERATOR'S USE, BATTERY MAINTANCE AND A LITTLE OF EVERYTHING TO KEEP A FORKLIFT RUNNING.