Don’t Forget About Your Charging Stations

Upgrading your fleet to electric lift trucks is a big investment. A lot of thought goes into choosing the right model and manufacturer, but exactly how and where the batteries will be charged in your facility is often overlooked.

Charging stations seem like a simple enough concept, but without proper planning they can have a huge impact on the efficiency of your operators. Not leaving enough room for operators to get on their trucks, installing chargers haphazardly or forgetting protective measures from possible impacts can all cause damage to the cables and connectors that make the chargers work. And if your lift truck can’t be charged, it can’t be used.

Businesses need to have a plan when it comes to maximizing runtime of their equipment and keeping it properly maintained. The ideal charging station should be an efficient, ergonomically planned design that makes it easy for the operator to charge while also protecting equipment like cables and connectors.

“The high-level idea is everything has its place,” says Trevor Bonifas, general manager, motive power, at Crown Equipment Corporation. “It’s a 5S type of concept of approaching where we put things and how they’re placed.”

In the case of charging lift trucks, Bonifas recommends following a few general steps, including:

• Create a designated spot for the forklift;
• Make sure the charger is properly positioned both vertically and horizontally;
• Install charger on a stand or mount it to the wall;
• Ensure charger is protected from an operator running into it with the lift truck;
• Install charger at an easy to access height for the majority of operators; and
• Position charger on the side where the charging port is on the lift truck, with the cable and charger offset from the truck.
• Bonifas emphasizes the importance of the last step, ensuring that there’s a safe spot to place the connector.
• “It’s an inexpensive part, but if that part is damaged, you can’t charge, which kind of ruins the whole process,” he explains. “If we can protect those components that commonly fail, we can maximize uptime and keep maintenance costs low.”

Improper cable management is one of the most common mistakes warehouses make when it comes to charging lift trucks. This can happen when trucks are parked side by side with no room for the operators, or chargers are placed directly behind or in front of trucks. Both of these scenarios can put stress on the cables, bending them or damaging the copper wiring inside.

“If you don’t hang those cables up and keep them off the ground, that’s when you get the damage on those cables and connectors,” says Bonifas. “You have a very expensive forklift battery and charger, and it can’t run because you didn’t protect your connectors.”

Another common mistake is setting up charging stations in out-of-the-way locations. The ideal site for a charging station is near break rooms or other easily accessed areas.

“That’s when you see shorter life on the batteries, but more importantly, shorter run time, because they’re just simply missing their charging opportunities,” says Bonifas.

Giving up valuable warehouse real estate to create these ideal charging stations can be a challenging conversation, but it’s necessary to maximize the value of the lift truck.

“If you want to maximize your uptime and productivity and keep your operators safe and make it easy for them to plug in, you’re going to have to give some of that space,” says Bonifas.

He adds that it’s important to understand what you’re going to get and what you’re going to lose by installing proper charging stations.

“The goal at the end of the day is…we want to design a charging station that makes it super easy for the operators to use that will also help us maintain the components that we could see damage with and help protect those,” says Bonfias. “If we can do that, we can maximize our charging opportunities, and ultimately have those forklifts running and keep those operators moving.”