Crown Equipment Corporation moves to lithium-ion battery technology with new energy storage system
Material handling company Crown Equipment Corporation has launched its V-Force solutions for customers seeking to improve battery electric forklift performance by using lithium-ion technology.
Crown’s V-Force energy storage systems (ESS) include lithium-ion batteries and chargers and are now available for Crown’s entire forklift truck portfolio, backed by Crown’s service and support network.
Highly qualified service technicians visit customers’ premises to help ensure forklifts, chargers and batteries are in proper operating condition.
“V-Force lithium-ion batteries last up to three times longer than lead acid batteries: they also offer faster charging, opportunity charging topups and longer run times” says Crown motive power product manager and technical solutions Henry Larsen.
“The batteries charge and discharge more efficiently and deliver sustained high performance throughout their charge.
Because you can recharge the batteries whenever you like, you can extend your forklift uptime over a 24- hour period. This means you can use them for one or more shifts without having to swap batteries.”
Lithium-ion systems offer considerable advantages over lead-acid batteries, especially in multi-shift operation. Routine battery maintenance is no longer necessary and batteries no longer need to be changed or watered.
Because lithium-ion batteries do not produce emissions while recharging, separate battery-charging rooms are no longer required.
Therefore, the batteries’ increased efficiency and lower service costs over time result in significant advantages for customers.
Crown V-Force batteries comply with Australian standards AS IEC 62619 for use in Industrial applications.
Fitted with multiple redundant safety systems, each battery features a multilevel safety architecture incorporating, for example, a variety of fuses plus individual-cell temperature and voltage monitoring.
Safety systems built into the battery help protect against overheating, short circuits, overcharging or deep discharging.
Various active protection functions are also in place to prevent operator errors from damaging the battery.
V-Force chargers use high-frequency technology to achieve charging rates of up to 1C. This means they can fully charge batteries with capacities of up to 400 Ah in less than 60 minutes by delivering a steady charging current of up to 400 A. They can handle battery voltages ranging from 24 to 96 volts for the V-HFM3.
To detect each battery’s voltage class automatically and charge the battery without requiring manual pre-sets, the charger communicates directly with the battery management system via the CAN bus.
During the charging process, a large,informative user interface displays a clear overview of the battery’s charging and operating status.