Zealous factory and warehouse owners often use (or over-use) forklifts in their day-to-day operations. Over the years, forklifts have become indispensable parts of several factories, mills and warehouses. Earlier, several people together would need to lift heavy loads and move them from one part of the building to another. This was not only time consuming and expensive. It was also dangerous for the workers. Slips, trips and falls are a common occurrence in factories and warehouses. A simple fall could injure the worker seriously. In addition, workers carrying heavy loads regularly could suffer from sprains and strains frequently.
Forklifts certainly came at a high price. However, they could carry and transport heavy loads from one place to another very easily. They could work on any kinds of terrain and surfaces. Furthermore, they could also operate under rough use.
The Power at the Core of Your Forklift – Its Batteries
However, to derive maximal use from them, the owners would need to maintain them regularly. This could involve regular inspections to check the various parts of the forklift for wear and tear issues or other concerns. If detected, the owners would need to repair or replace the forklift spare parts with authentic spare parts.
Your forklift’s batteries keep your forklift running. Just like other parts experience wear and tear issues, you could occasionally find that your forklift batteries are not running as well as they should. A new battery could easily set you back by several hundreds to thousands of dollars. You could easily purchase used forklift batteries, for half that price. Another popular recourse that many forklift owners have recourse to these days is to regenerate their forklift batteries.
Forklift Battery Regeneration – What it is and How it Works
From the time that battery manufacturers produce them, forklift batteries being to sulphate. Each battery goes through a certain operation called cycling. During the cycling process, the battery continues to charge and discharge. Conventional (and contemporary) charging technologies are not really 100 percent – despite the claims of many manufacturers. Therefore, each time the battery charges, it leaves tiny sulphates unconverted. Over time, these sulphates continue to accumulate on the plates of the battery.
The greater the volume of sulphate deposits on the battery, the greater their resistance would be. Hence, you would eventually reach a stage, where your battery does not charge fully. The most common manifestation of this problem is when you find that your battery’s discharging capacity continues to decline. For example, when it was new, your battery could discharge power for about eight hours. Over time, the presence of sulphate deposits would bring this down to probably three to four hours.
The reason for this reduction stems from the fact that the charger reads the voltage. The resistance of the sulphate deposits produces higher voltages. Thus, the charger assumes that the battery has a charge equivalent to its maximum capacity. This makes the charger switch itself off, before the battery can charge itself further. As a result, the discharge capacity of the battery is not much more than it had before you put it for recharging.
Earlier, people would ask their dealers and retailers to replace these faulty batteries. However, with the advancements in technology, you do not need to do this at present. All you need to do is to remove these deposits of sulphate from the plates. Once you remove these sulphate deposits, your battery’s capacity would return to its original levels. Therefore, you could easily convert your used battery into one that is as good as new, by regenerating it.
Should You Regenerate Your Battery or Purchase a New One – The Cost Effective Factor
As mentioned earlier, a new battery would cost several hundreds of dollars. Purchasing used batteries or regenerating used batteries would be considerably cheaper. However, a regenerated battery cannot compare with a brand new one. Therefore, before you make your decision consider:
- The kinds of loads you plan to lift with your forklift
- How many hours you plan to use your forklift for each day or week
- How much time, effort and money you would be able to invest in maintaining your regenerated battery
- How long you want to use your used battery, before you eventually purchase a new one
Eventually, maintaining and regenerating your battery would become a tedious affair. It could also reduce the output and efficiency levels, thereby impacting your productivity. Therefore, a new forklift battery could be a better option if you want optimal operational capacity for your forklifts for longer stretches of time.
South Coast Forklifts – Leading Providers of Forklift Spare Parts in Australia
South Coast Forklifts is a leading provider of new and used forklifts and their associated spare parts. We also offer onsite service and repairs for all makes and models of forklifts. In addition, we could also give you forklifts for hire. Therefore, call us at 1300 988 795 whenever you need anything for your forklift.