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Forklift truck manufacturer Jungheinrich provides its own range of batteries and chargers for all of its electric trucks – including counterbalance machines, pedestrian stackers and order pickers.
Providing both truck and battery, enables Jungheinrich to simplify truck maintenance procedures by eliminating the confusion that sometimes surrounds the cause of truck downtime, as Craig Johnson, Jungheinrich UK Ltd’s marketing manager, explains:
“It is not uncommon in the event of an electric-powered truck breaking down for the truck supplier to blame battery malfunction for the problem and the battery supplier to argue that the cause of the malfunction lies with the mechanics of the machine itself. Because Jungheinrich is a ‘one-stop shop’ capable of offering truck, battery and charger, our clients never face such potentially awkward ‘blame game’ problems. And, what’s more, in the UK we have over 550 service engineers who work on both trucks and batteries and chargers.”
A complete range of batteries is offered from the standard lead acid models to maintenance-free types and all the products in the range can be recycled.
“The choice of battery depends on a number of factors – not the least of which is the question of whether the truck is expected to operate single or multi shifts,” adds Craig Johnson. “However there is a trend towards low maintenance batteries which require longer intervals between services. Jungheinrich’s low-maintenance batteries used in conjunction with our special charging technology and electrolye circulation system – which enables air to be pumped into the battery to thoroughly mix the battery acid – results in faster charging and less servicing work because water consumption is lowered. And that means less truck downtime and even more impressive production efficiency.”
In addition, Jungheinrich recently launched JiBOS – the Jungheinrich Intelligent Battery Organisation System.
The JiBOS system has been designed to enhance the efficiency of the battery pool, by allowing a forklift truck fleet’s battery usage to be monitored and controlled. As a result significant cost savings can be made over the lifetime of both batteries and chargers.
In simple terms, when the time comes for an electric-powered forklift truck to swap batteries, JiBOS guides the truck’s operator to the most appropriate battery to take in the charging area. A simple LED display highlights which battery has been charging and cooling for the optimum time.
“Operators naturally select the most conveniently-located battery when it comes to change-over time,” says Bill Goodwin, sales director of Jungheinrich UK Ltd. “This often means that batteries placed nearest the entrance to the charging bay are most frequently picked. Unfortunately, overused and insufficiently cooled batteries have a dramatically reduced capacity and life. JiBOS promotes longer battery life through uniform usage and optimizes maximum available battery cooling time. As a result, both battery and charger fleets age at the same rate – which means reduced maintenance and operating costs for the user.”
Jungheinrich say that after installing JiBOS, truck users can also expect batteries to hold their charge for longer – resulting in fewer battery changes. In a typical application, the number of batteries required to operate the forklift fleet will also be reduced.
JiBOS is already in operation at a number of major retailers’ warehouse facilities and in all cases on-site battery charging costs are down. ‘Furthermore,” says Bill Goodwin, “at one user site, four year-old batteries that would normally be expected to be holding a lower charge are actually holding a charge for longer ,which means they need less frequent changing.
“Meanwhile at another user’s facility, JiBOS has been so successful that the battery pool has been reduced by such an extent that floor space once dedicated to battery charging has been converted into an additional storage area,” he adds.
About Jungheinrich UK Ltd:
Jungheinrich UK Ltd offers Pallet Trucks, Stackers, Counterbalance Trucks, Reach Trucks, Order Pickers, Very Narrow Aisle and Stacker Cranes in more than 600 truck variants. As well as this, Jungheinrich provide an extensive Aftersales Support Network, Rental and Financial Services, Racking Systems and Warehouse Planning. The company is a division of the German-owned Jungheinrich Group, which has manufacturing facilities Worldwide.
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