At its cooked meats plants in Waterloo, Iowa and Columbia, S.C., IBP's KPR Division of Food Brands has switched to sealed, maintenance-free batteries to power its electric lift truck fleets. Previously, the IBP units used conventional, flooded batteries.

By using sealed batteries based on absorbed electrolyte technology, IBP has reduced its costs for labor and maintenance on the forklift fleets while it improved productivity. Annual dollar savings at each plant have been about $15,000.

Affected by the switchover are five 48-volt sitdown, counterbalanced lift trucks with load capacities of 5,000 pounds, and five 24-volt walkie/rider pallet trucks with load capacities of 5,000 pounds.

The two plants operate 6 days a week on 2 shifts. With the old, conventional batteries for the trucks, each plant had to have 20 flooded batteries to power the trucks. Ten 48-volt batteries were used on the sitdown trucks (two each); and ten of the 24-volt batteries (again, two per truck) powered the walkies.

Discharged flooded batteries had to be changed out after each shift (sometimes more often). While one battery was on a truck, the other was undergoing an 8-hour charge.

The plants had to have dedicated charging areas equipped with cranes to move batteries; special ventilation systems to deal with escaping hydrogen gases; eye-wash stations; and equipment for acid-equalization, battery watering, and cleanup of any acid spills.

Lift truck operators plus two full-time employees were assigned to these operations.

Use of flooded batteries meant that labor was expended in tasks such as changing, watering, cleanup, and performing other maintenance. There were risks to personnel and damage to equipment from spilled acid from flooded batteries. And finally there was the cost of charging room equipment.

When it switched over, IBP had to make a choice between two types of sealed battery technologies - absorbed electrolyte technology and gel cell technology.

Both types are maintenance-free. Neither type requires water replenishment nor special ventilation (except the gel cell during the initial stages of its life). Both can be recharged for short periods several times during a shift.

IBP put the two technologies to tests to determine which would work best for its handling operations. At Waterloo, five sitdown trucks were equipped with absorbed electrolyte batteries while five walkie/rider pallet trucks were fitted with gel cell batteries. The ten trucks at the Columbia, S.C. plant all ran on absorbed electrolyte units.

According to Dennis Sander, senior management engineer, the absorbed electrolyte batteries were better able to handle the stress of the plants' two-shift, heavy-duty operation.

The gel cell batteries failed within 2 months and had to be returned to the manufacturer for repair. Even after the gel batteries were back in service, they were still unable to cope with the application after several days of operation.

The switch to absorbed electrolyte, sealed batteries, says Sander, "has resulted in substantial benefits for us. "We have eliminated the labor costs associated with battery watering, acid equalization, and cleanup of trucks and equipment, as well as equipment expenses for ventilation and watering systems, eye-wash stations and acid clean-up.

"The sealed batteries are opportunity charged for from 10 to 15 minutes during lunch and work breaks. This has resulted in longer lift truck run time and improved productivity and morale," says Sander.

GNB Industrial Power
630-629-5200
www.gnb.com