The past is future in energy solutions for electric forklifts.

Europe is seeing a recent upswing in old school technology for forklift energy supply in logistic distribution centers.

.

Jopro AB of Sweden has been in the battery handling equipment business since the 1980s and has seen big changes in the market over the last few years.

Fast charging has taken over many of the small and medium customers, with only a few forklifts and natural pauses in the operation, that are ideal for opportunity charging.

But the push towards fast charging has had a different effect on larger operators of warehouse trucks. Some have remodeled their facilities and operations to make way for opportunity charging. Many others have realized that they have more to gain from improving their battery handling with modern solutions, giving them a safe and ergonomic process while saving time and money on each battery change.

One large Swedish retail chain recently opted to reverse their decision to shift to fast charging, after experiencing limitations in the technology and its implementation and problems contracting fire insurance. The decision was taken to remove the recently bought fast-charging equipment and install a new battery change system instead.
Other large logistics operators have reversed their plans to invest in fast charging when they have realized the operational limitations of the technique on project level.

Large forklift fleets sometimes experience problems with fast charging the batteries on all given opportunities, resulting in parking problems near rest areas and forklifts that are left without charging.
Battery Change on the other hand, is performed in just a few minutes once per 8-hour shift, compared to the 1-2 hours of stop time required for every 8 hours of operation with fast charging.

Another issue with large scale fast charging is power peaks in the electric supply. With continuous battery change, there is no peak consumption at specific hours, but instead an even load on the electrical grid.

Worth to mention is also the effect that fast charging has on batteries. Round trip efficiency and lifetime is listed for ideal charge cycles that take several hours, not for opportunity based fast charging. The result is that real power consumption is higher and lifetime lower than pledged.

Extracting the battery from the machine and replacing it with a fully charged one permits both ideal charge cycles and time to cool off, resulting in near ideal operation conditions for the batteries.

The attached video is from the charging room at a mayor Scandinavian home design company, feeding more than 100 forklifts on less than 200 square meter space, without need of proximity to the lunchroom.