Big Dutchman

A specialist in animal housing and feeding systems, Big Dutchman uses Fronius Selectiva battery charging systems to supply a fleet of 59 electrically-powered forklift trucks reliably and economically at its Lower Saxonian logistics centre in Vechta-Calveslage.

With the innovative Ri charging process, the 21 Selectiva devices minimise energy loss during charging, thus lowering energy costs and CO2 emissions, while ultra cool charging increases the service life of the batteries. “Our measurements indicate that the Fronius devices enable much cooler charging of the batteries and consume far less energy,” reports Bernd Gürtler, Senior Manager Logistics Services at Big Dutchman.

The Selectiva devices offer flexible charging for batteries with a voltage of 12 to 80 volts. “This makes things much simpler for our employees and prevents errors, as they don’t have to think about which battery to connect to which battery charging system,” enthuses Gürtler. A clearly visible LED strip on each battery charging system displays the status of the connected battery, improving utilisation of the battery pool and in turn having a positive effect on service life.

The use of Fronius charging technology at Big Dutchman has significantly improved the performance and availability of the entire forklift truck system. Faults and downtimes due to defective batteries have become a much rarer occurrence. The company anticipates a considerably longer service life for traction batteries, and with procurement costs averaging 4,000 euros per battery, this represents a huge potential saving.