Fronius improves battery charging efficiency

Fronius states its Ri charging process is instrumental in achieving greater energy efficiency.

The company says: “It’s unfortunately a fact: more than half of all the battery charging systems used in Europe to charge forklift truck batteries still rely on the old 50 Hz transformer technology. The efficiency levels of such systems are, by today’s standards, frighteningly low.

“A step in the right direction is employing battery charging systems with inverter or HF technology. The Fronius Selectiva battery charging system with Active Inverter Technology for intralogistics applications. This high-frequency based technology returns higher total efficiency figures than 50Hz based technology.”

The system also allows users to specify the battery voltage and the charging time, as many batteries are only partially discharged. By specifying a charging time, the charging process can be extended over the whole period. This enables the battery to be charged very gently due to the lower energy input and the correspondingly lower warming effect. Fronius says this means that for companies with fluctuating forklift truck utilisation levels, harmful overcharging is prevented and the batteries remain undamaged. Furthermore, peak currents are prevented in situations where the charging of a number of forklift truck batteries starts simultaneously at the end of a shift. Peak currents are to be avoided, as they drive up costs.

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