Battery handling operations reduce lift truck idle time
By keeping battery change-out time to just 10 min. per truck, Lucent Technologies runs more efficiently.
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 7/1/1998
The Lucent Technologies Product and Export Center (PEC) in Merrimack Valley (Haverhill, Mass.) uses narrow-aisle pallet racks for high storage of about 65% of the products it handles. The facility serves the company's Merrimack Valley Works. (Each manufacturing facility for Lucent has its own associated warehouse.)At its PEC, Lucent Technologies was looking for a way to maximize efficiency of its 37 industrial trucks, so as to avoid a need to add more trucks at its 208,000 sq ft facility. Serving many communications providers both domestically and internationally, Lucent faced increasing order volumes every month. The PEC now provides thousands of products to its growing customer base around the world
Lucent found the answer with a new battery charging system used in conjunction with pulling, watering, and washing systems for batteries. The entire operation occupies 1,080 sq ft in total. The unit is able to change a battery within 10 min. Previously, the company changed batteries using an overhead crane, and watered batteries manually, a process which occupied as much as 45 min. per truck.
The company now uses C-line, 2250 duty cycle batteries, which feature a one-point watering system. Tony Mauriello, planning engineer at the facility, says that the system "saves time, improves safety, and eliminates the need to purchase additional trucks."
Rail-guided rollers transport trucks effortlessly into the battery change-out compartment. The batteries are transported on the puller, and transferred to the watering and cleaning stations after charging. Terry Rankle, material handling engineer with Lucent, comments that, as a precaution against electrolyte spills, the system has stainless steel pans to catch any residue on the batteries, a feature Lucent has never needed.
The washing system has many functions. It monitors pH levels of liquid in the recirculating system, and adds neutralizer until pH reaches the proper level of 7. The recirculating system also features a carbon filter to remove particles 50 microns and larger. It has an ozone generator to add this substance to the liquid to help coagulate particles in the water for filtration.
Finally, in the wash cabinet, high-pressure nozzles clean the tops and sides of the batteries. An air knife removes any excess water from batteries when they exit the wash cabinet.
C&D Technologies, Inc. 800-543-8630 ext. 250
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