Battery Dry
How Dirty Forklift Batteries Are Ruining Your Fleet by Jeremy Smith
Forklift batteries are designed to be reliable and long lasting, but without proper care they wear out more quickly, damage your equipment and endanger your workers. In addition to watering and charging, battery washing is an essential component to proper maintenance.
Dangers Of Dirty Batteries
Corrosion builds up on electrical terminals and, if not cleaned off, leads to a host of problems. It increases resistance between the terminals and the leads, which generates more heat during use and can lead to fires. The corrosion reduces the amount of power the power cell puts out, giving poorer performance. It causes a short circuit so the unit continually discharges even when not in use, shortening useful life.
Corrosion can cause the cells to rupture. This not only ruins the cell but exposes workers to dangerous acids. Bad batteries stress forklift electrical systems and contribute to expensive breakdowns. If this all sound serious, that’s because it is, and yet these problems can be mitigated with a regular program of battery washing.
Should You Use A Service?
The importance of battery washing has led to the rise of an industry that does nothing but power cell maintenance. If you have a fleet of electric forklifts, you probably get regular calls from these agencies offering to maintain your power cells for a reasonable fee.
However that reasonable fee adds up to a lot of money over time. If you have to transport the batteries to the cleaning facility, those cells might be gone for days. Some services come to your site, but that still means you lose access to power on their schedule rather than on yours. Maintenance services might be worthwhile for small fleets, but mid-sized to large fleets should stock their own wash equipment, including industrial wastewater treatment.
Using Your Own Battery Washing Station
Modern wash cabinets are designed for simplicity and reliability. Workers feed power cells into the unit and the entire battery washing process is handled automatically. Terminals are cleaned of corrosion and dirt, and the unit is dried thoroughly before exiting the cabinet. The entire process is quick and complete.
The advantage of using a dedicated wash cabinet over hand washing is the cabinets include water treatment. Wash water cannot simply be dumped into the drain, as it contains lead and other heavy metals as well as other contaminants such as battery acid. The wash cabinets filter and reuse the water, storing the contaminants for easy and proper disposal. This protects the environment, and protects your company against stiff federal penalties for water pollution.
Battery washing is an easy and yet often-overlooked aspect of forklift maintenance. Inexpensive wash cabinets will pay for themselves in longer power cell life, safer workers and more reliable equipment.
About the Author
Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information about battery washing, please visit http://www.multi-shifter.com/.
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