When Nestle Waters switched from propane-powered lift trucks to electrics at its Poland Spring water bottling plant in Framingham, Mass., the company found that battery charging had a definite downside. Not only did charging take time and space in the facility, but it required more than one battery per truck.

A move to a fast-charging system has changed all that. Now batteries are generally kept at a 40 to 100% charge throughout the 20-hour workday. Charging is done only at opportune times, maximizing lift truck uptime. In addition, only one battery is required per lift truck, and the traditional charging room eliminated. Life cycle costs of the batteries are estimated to be more than 20% lower with fast-charging units too.

Nestlé Waters uses two types of trucks at its facility. The larger trucks are 6,500-pound capacity, 48-volt trucks that handle two pallets side-by-side at the same time in both production and warehousing. The smaller trucks are 4,000-pound capacity, 48-volt trucks that load delivery trucks.

Operators were constantly replacing the batteries of the trucks by themselves. This required a second lift truck and a lifting beam to swap batteries weighing up to 3,500 pounds. Average time to change a battery was 20 minutes. With its business growing, Nestlé Waters needed to reduce the time spent changing batteries without increasing the warehouse space devoted to battery charging.

The decision was made to switch to fast-charging batteries to keep up with the fast-paced plant.

"A number of options were re-viewed, including the option of installing a new two-high stack battery handling system that would replace our previous single-stack system," says Mike DeMattio, Nestlé's Northeast area fleet manager.

With the switch to fast-charging batteries, lift truck operators stopped handling batteries altogether, improving safety and productivity. Rather than switching out a discharged battery for a recharged one, the driver now simply plugs the truck into the charger station during any idle time throughout the day. In addition, warehouse space is created with the elimination of battery storage racks.

"Operators now spend their time moving product instead of batteries," DeMattio concludes.