Forklift Battery Integrations Seminar by MHI Advanced Energy Council
Following many decades of electric forklifts’ engineering evolution based on the single power- source technology (the lead-acid battery), electric lift trucks have finally adopted a new power source: a lithium-ion battery pack. The benefits of lithium solutions are well-known by now: longer runtime and cycle life, less maintenance, and improved sustainability. Lithium batteries provide a better return on investment, ability to optimize critical real property space and enable the use of Automated Guided Vehicles and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AGVs and AMRs), which rely heavily on durable, ”hands-off” lithium batteries.
Now that lithium batteries can be an integral part of a lift truck, and there is the option of using a third-party modular lithium battery pack made by a specialist company there is a need to establish standard vocabulary within the industry. How is “Chassis Integrated” different from “CAN Integrated” and what exactly does it mean for the lithium battery to be “Drop-In”? Will a chassis-integrated or a modular battery pack become the standard? These questions turn out to be pivotal for the development of material handling equipment.
In consumer devices powered by lithium batteries (like cell phones) an integrated battery is a standard choice today. A user does not need to pick and choose among multiple options or perform any maintenance on the battery; one size fits all users. But with professional tools and equipment, a modular detachable battery usually does a better job. These different approaches
are relevant to material handling equipment.