Jungheinrich, the German industrial vehicle maker has shown 48V lithium-ion technology for 48V forklift truck at a German trade fair.
It features shorter charging times, zero maintenance and a long battery life, with the option of short interim charging times, increasing the availability of electric stackers.
This makes possible permanent fleet operation of up to 24 hours, seven days a week without requiring a battery change, the company claims.
Even after an interim charging time of just 40 minutes, the high-performance energy cells with 360Ah take on 50% of their capacity. After 80 minutes the Jungheinrich lithium-ion battery achieves its full charge.
By eliminating the need to change the battery, the fleet operator benefits not only of the expense of buying a second battery, but also of the cost of battery changing equipment, special charging stations and the time required to perform the battery change – not to mention the reduction in workplace accidents during battery changes, which the new system makes unnecessary.
It also eliminates all the traditional maintenance activities attached to lead-acid systems.
Using state-of-the-art lithium-ion technology, Jungheinrich has developed a completely maintenance-free battery with a life expectancy of up to 3,000 full cycles and a considerably higher number of partial cycles. By way of comparison, the average life of lead-acid batteries is 900 to 1,200 cycles.
