Evaluation and comparison of electric fork-lifters with exchangeable batteries with fuel cell and diesel fork-lifters

The project aims to develop, implement and evaluate a solution for using electric-powered counterweight fork-lift trucks with energy storage in batteries during continuous operation in a process industry plant. Since the trucks are in operation, 24 hours every day in a week, also known as 24/7 operation, there are not enough time windows for charging batteries. Instead, a solution is designed where batteries can be shifted, or switched, and charged stationary outside the fork-lifters

The project includes implementation and demonstration and tests for an electric fork-lifter intended to be equipped with shiftable batteries and a stationary charging device. During the test operation, operating data from the current electric fork-lifter are collected and compared with operational data from conventional diesel-powered fork-lifters used for the same handling tasks.

Furthermore, previously collected data for a fuel cell-equipped test fork-lifter that performed the same tasks are compared.