Battery management
March 1st 2008

Halfords has reduced the battery charge and change area at its Redditch NDC by more than 75% following the introduction of equipment from EnerSys Motive Power. The company has eliminated manual handling of batteries and expects battery efficiency to be improved.

Battery positions are arranged close together along both sides of a narrow aisle, with chargers mounted overhead. This maximises density of the charging stations and reduces the footprint.

An Enersys Hawker management system works in conjunction with the 'intelligent' diagnostic capabilities of the power sources to oversee every aspect of battery use. A wall-mounted display indicates which battery should be used and where it can be found.

An alarm sounds if someone tries to take the wrong one.

Most batteries are handled using the Hawker ProSeries BBH semiautomated change cart, an electric powered trolley known as the 'bull'.

This runs rail-guided along the aisle between charging stations. Its platform holds two batteries so it can collect a fully charged battery from a charging area and swap it with the depleted one from the truck.

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