Battery

From wikiMHEDA

A battery is a combination of two or more cells electrically connected to work together to produce electric energy.^[1] In material handling, batteries (specifically lead acid batteries) are commonly used to power lift trucks.

History

Modern battery study did not begin until the late nineteenth century, but there is archaeological evidence that prehistoric people created an electrochemical cell that would meet today's battery qualifications. This primitive cell was found in Baghdad in 1932 and is believed to represent battery technology from about 2500 years ago.

Interestingly, little battery research existed until the 1780s, when Luigi Galvani noticed that a frog's leg muscles would twitch when connected to strips of iron and brass. Galvani's work was expanded by Alessandro Volta a few years later, when he replicated Galvani's experiment using zinc and copper. These metals also produced electric current, and Volta piled them on top of each other, essentially creating the first dry battery.

Volta's creation was the basis for continued research in the area of stored electricity, but the next major breakthrough did not occur until 1859, when Gaston Plante developed the lead-acid battery. Plante used lead plates that could be easily recharged. This is the basis for the technology used today in many automotive and industrial batteries.

By 1866, French engineer Georges Leclanche had patented the wet cell, the precursor to today's zinc carbon cells and the alkaline batteries used in flashlights. Today's batteries remain basically the same as the ones developed in the 19th century. Refinements have resulted in a wide variety of chemical combinations using, zinc, carbon, nickel, cadmium, lithium and numerous other elements.^[2]

To learn more read an article in The MHEDA Journal

Types

Common types of batteries in material handling include:

References

Battery

From wikiMHEDA

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History

Types

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References

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