Power up with our Australia's largest range of Forklift Battery Chargers

This is when forklift batteries are charged during break periods throughout the day to maintain a high level of battery charge or extend standard daily Battery run times. This can involve a standard "boost" charge rate, or in specialised applications, a Fast Charge rate in order to extend daily usage run times, with the rate of charge supplied during shift breaks indicative of any particular sites requirements.

In supplying specialised Chargers for additional daily Battery usage while also protecting the Battery, an Electric Forklift can now be used for applications that historically needed gas, diesel or petrol powered Forklifts or second shift batteries, rather than just the traditional "8" hour shift usage that most Electric Forklifts are designed to deliver with each charge and discharge cycle - without damaging the batteries.

Each Opportunity or Fast charge cycle effectively provides a safe “boost” charge to the Battery during usage shift breaks, negating the gassing phase of Charge - the rate of this “boost” Charge is indicative of whether it is an Opportunity (20-25% Start rate) or Fast Charge (normally 25-40% start rate depending on the application).

IBA supply all Charger variants to cater for each and every Electric Forklift Charging requirement, from standard overnight Chargers in both Conventional and HF technologies, through to Smart "Opportunity" Chargers, all the way through to Fast Charging applications in order to cover each and every Electric Forklift site requirement.

Every Forklift Battery's life span is determined by the number of charge cycles that it can perform - the higher the required usage, the lower the expected life expectancy of the Battery. 

Like an Iphone Battery, if a phone is used heavily during the day, the Battery life of the phone will decrease, and the same principle applies with every Battery in any industry, including Forklifts. Some forklift Batteries only need to be charged once a week based on low usage requirements for the application that it is supplied into, these Batteries will invariably last well over 15 Years prior to required replacement. A Battery that is used from full charge to flat daily and charged once a day will invariably last 6-8 years on average, depending on the quality of the Battery. Each high quality Forklift Battery is supplied with a 5 Year / 1500 cycle Warranty here in Australia, in order to cover any and all Electric Forklift requirements, for all usages. 

When a battery is on charge, the greatest degree of Battery deterioration occurs in the last 20% of the charge process, or the gassing stage, where the Charger initiates a profile to enable the mixing of the electrolyte within the Battery cell, resulting in higher internal heat build up within the Battery asset. Our Smart and Fast Charger range negates this phase through real time usage programming, to enable charging through any given shift to extend daily Battery run times. 

If a battery being opportunity charged is plugged into a standard overnight charge Conventional or HF charger (instead of a specialised Opportunity or Fast charger) during the day to add charge to the Battery, a week's worth of wear can be experienced in one day, resulting in lower Battery life expectancy over time, caused mainly by what is excessive internal heat build up inside the Battery pack.

This can effectively turns a 6-8 year Forklift Battery life expectancy into a 2-3 year battery life prior to requiring replacement. This is where the terminology “Opportunity Charging” has derived from.

A Conventional or HF standard overnight charger used for this type of specialised charging will irreparably damage a battery.