New CMP charger range design

Following CMP Batteries' announcement of its new consolidated range of chargers back in spring of 2005, CMP has now completed the next stage of the development programme by unveiling the new design, livery and coding. This will harmonise the range across Europe amongst all the Exide Technologies Group of companies and will make charger selection simpler. With the new range, CMP are continuing to invest in High Frequency charger technology, which offers a number of benefits over older technologies.

One of the oldest technologies for charging batteries is a 'tapered' charging profile whereby a high charge is delivered initially, but as the voltage increases within the cell, the delivered charge current is reduced. The 'two-step tapered' approach ceased to be offered by CMP decades ago because it was too problematical and not particularly efficient so now only the single tapered (TP) version is available and it can only be used on 'Classic' flooded batteries.

A superior charging profile is offered by a 'Regulated' charger, in which micro-processors with specialised software manage the current. This is more energy efficient and does not suffer some of the inherent problems experienced by tapered chargers if a battery charging regime is not being followed correctly. Regulated (RP) chargers can be used on all three of CMP's battery technologies – 'Classic' flooded, low maintenance 'Liberator' battery solutions and maintenance-free 'Sonnenschein' gel batteries.

The most energy and space efficient and technologically advanced chargers are the High Frequency (HF) chargers. They are available in High Performance (HP) and Standard Performance (SP) varieties. SP models are suitable for smaller equipment such as power pallet trucks and order pickers whereas the HP models can charge any equipment – from the smaller items up to reach trucks, fork trucks etc. The HP models are available in three-phase as well as single phase options, for even greater energy efficiency. The micro-processors within HF chargers offer multi-profile flexibility. HF chargers can also be provided as on-board chargers, formerly known as CH models, but now called 'OP' meaning 'On-board Performance'.

One benefit to end users in all this investment is that there will be shorter lead times. CMP prides itself on the fact that most of its field engineers have been with the company for many years and therefore the possibility of specifying a charger that is not ideal for their individual requirements is minimized. Not content with merely rationalising the range, CMP has developed its own in-house software, called M.A.C.S. which, based on the customers' vehicle fleet, power requirements and usage patterns, will recommend the best charger for that permutation.

Tony Summers, Industrial Energy Group Marketing Manager comments, “Time is becoming a valuable commodity; couple this with the fact that energy prices are rising rapidly and government is tightening up on 'environmental impact', then we need to ensure that customers' electric vehicle fleets are kept running, efficiently, round the clock and that the service life of our batteries is maximised. The investments we've been making in our chargers offers time, cost, operational and environmental benefits to our customers.”