The idea of doing a control instrument of the battery to combine an intellegent charge system arises from the need of giving the right importance to the traction battery: it represents a very important component of the lift truck. In particular, the control and monitoring instrument of the BatMon batteries borns to fill the information gap concerning the battery and all the daily charge and discharge processes; its purpose is to measure and check some parameters of the battery and others of some processes to present them as historical report in real time to the user and to the maintenance operative; and mainly, if it is combined to the intelligent charge system SIRIUS, to change all charge parameters automatically to optimize the charge process of the battery.The combining of the BatMon and SIRIUS systems guarantees the following advantages:

- Optimization of the charge/discharge processes relating to the improvement of the effectiveness linked to the recharge of the capacity only, lost during the normal working of the lift truck and to the analysis of the advancement of the whole charge process related to the real discharge curve of the battery;

- Reduction of the power consumptions for the recharge of the battery;- Increase of the useful life of the battery for the lack of super-heating and surcharge;- Constant monitoring of the charge cycles and detection of the alarms in real time that can cause the interruption

of the charge cycle (e.g.: for the increase of the battery or the authomatic start of a top-up system in the event of a low level of electrolyte;

- Reduction of the battery top-up;- Reduction of the charge time;- Diagnostics of the charge and discharge processes: analysis of the possibile anomalies and the search of the

causes imputables to the charge process or to the battery or to the user, if the battery is not autonomous.

The SIRIUS charge system and the BatMon instrument develop their functions also indipendently, or rather SIRIUS can be used as any charge system of traction batteries and BatMon as a measuring and check instrument, but the maximum of effectiveness of a recharge system can be reached by the integration and the synergy of both only. This integration has been reached developing specific functions in both units, equiping them with a bidirectional communication interface for a safe data transmission and enabling a total interaction as a sole system.

SIRIUS

SIRIUS is a battery charger equipped with a digital control form achieved with microcontroller technology. It is a flexible and modulated unit able to satisfy all requirements connected to the recharging of batteries in general and specifically to solve all that is necessary for the final utilisation.The controller of SIRIUS is completely programmable and easy to use thanks to the userfriendly interface graphic shown on the display allowong the planning of configuration data and the parameters and measures visualisation during the charge.In particular, it allows to configure the following data:

Battery parameters:- nominal tension (24V, 36V, 40V, 48V, 72V, 80V e 96V),

minimum and maximum tension and of gasification;- minimum and maximum charge current;- integration capacity;Counters:- duration of temporised cycle;- time-out of the safety cycle;- delayed start timer (automatic, 3h, 6h and 9h): program the

start of the charge cycle during the night to reduct the power consumption;

Charge cycle:- charge modality (Wa) or (WoWa);- energy saving (active and inactive);- equalised charge (manual and automatic);General setting:- operation formality (normal and test);- presentation language of the display (english and italian);

visualization of the following measures in real time:- battery voltage,- charge current,- charge power,- time of the charge cycle,- charge capacity.

In parallel to the logic of standard operation of a battery charge process which foresees for the charge a controlling of the tension followed by a complete check of the charge in automatic mode going on to verify both the ampere-hour integrated into the battery and the minimum values of current allocated. Once the controls have been activated, the charge concludes on the satisfaction of the conditions of at least one of the controls.The control unit is capable of detecting the malfunctioning alarms of the charge cycle and submit them to the user through an appropriate menu for management and resolution of the same. Finally, all the correctly concluded charge cycle or interrupted cycle information are memorised to create an informative database necessary to achieve a use analysis of the battery charger and of the battery conditions.The control unit is provided with a communication interface USB for the configuration, management and monitoring of the charge system and with a bidirecional radio communication for the data transmission by the BatMon instrument.

BatMon

BatMon is a battery monitoring instrument developed specially to meet the needs of industrial and traction batteries.It is based on microcontroller technology and contructed to be fitted in the battery space.

The most important functions of BatMon are the following:- Measurement of the charge and discharge current in real

time, of the maximum values, of the voltage and of the battery temperature;

- Calculation of the residual capacity of the battery, of the duration and the number of the charge and discharge cycles;

- Signalling of the different typologies of alarms of the battery as low capacity, low voltage, high temperature, low level of electrolyte, communication error, etc…;

- visualization of all measures, of the activated alarms and all general information of the instrument in real time on the display;

- led signals for the operating status of the instrument and for the alarms of high temperature of the battery and low level of the electrolyte;

- USB cable system bidirectional communication by personal computer for the configuration, management and monitoring of the instrument;

- Bidirectional radiocommunication with the SIRIUS battery charger unit for the demand of capacity to reintegrate and transfert of the alarm in action during the charge cycle.

This instrument could be used with any kind of battery with nominal voltage from 24V to 96V. Once connected to the battery, BATMON controls and monitors the whole discharging cycle measuring and calculating the discharged capacity during lift track operations in real time. The discharged capacity is calculated referring to the real advancement of the capacity with different speeds of discharge and the variation of it woth the temperature to obtain reliable results (ot os for this reason that the curve of the advancement of of the capacity related to the discharge currents and of the variation of the capacity related to the temperature have been mapped inside the microcontroller).The capacity value you have to demand for the recharge, results from the application of a coefficient, considering the inefficiencies of the charge process, to the calculated real value of the discharged capacity. This coefficient can be modified during all the life cycle of the battery to calculate its wear . If, during the normal operations of the lift truck, the battery voltage decreases down an alarm value (programmable), during the recharge pahse BatMon asks to SIRIUS to charge the battery completely.This instrument permits to program different alarm thresholds: for the temperature, the minimum voltage, the minimum capacity and permits to enable the radio connectivity, the level and temperature sensor. Furthermore it can store all the information of the discharge and charge cycles to do a careful analysis of the battery use.At last, it permits to calculate the absorbed power for every charge cycle and the total power for the following 30 cycles; in this case, it permits to make a comparison with the power abosrbed in the same conditions but without the combination with SIRIUS to check the real economic gain of this complete system.The instrument Batmon can monitor the charge and discharge processes of the battery throughout, and can be used with any kind of charge, active or passive, to connect to the battery to estimate its tightness, so You must not buy specific and expensive charge systems. Furthermore Batmon can be used as a multi-functional measurement instrument.