A new high

A four-high lift truck battery charge and change facility has been installed by EnerSys at the St Helens regional distribution centre operated by the logistics arm of The Cooperative Group.

"Multi-tier battery banks have proved themselves at our other distribution centres and going four-high is a safe and flexible solution which follows best practice," says Chas Shepperson (pictured), national MHE fleet manager at the logistics arm of The Co-operative Group.

In a multi-tier installation batteries are stored above each other to make better use of floorspace and handled in and out of racks using specially adapted handling carts. These were generally restricted to two or three levels in the past because of limitations with the hydraulic performance of the handling equipment. EnerSys eliminated these issues at The Co-operative Group's Chester-le-Street warehouse by creating a battery handling system with a fully-electric battery changing cart without any need for hydraulics.

A version of this machine, which was based on the popular Pro Series BBH, was built for handling batteries on four levels at St Helens.