MHI Annual Fall Conference Report – Spotlight Shines on Electrification of Material Handling Equipment

Robin Schneider, Green Cubes Director of Marketing

Earlier this month I attended the Fall 2023 MHI Annual Conference, an interactive thought leadership event for manufacturing, material handling, and supply chain professionals that focuses on the technology innovation taking place across the supply chain industry. As Vice Chair of the Advanced Energy Council, which was established earlier this year to represent the companies that produce, implement, and support advanced energy technologies and accessories with the intention of being inclusive of current and future motive energy storage technologies, we are observing more and more interest in electrification of material handling equipment. Following many decades of electric forklifts’ engineering evolution based on the single power source technology (the lead-acid battery), electric lift trucks have finally adopted a new power source: a lithium-ion battery pack. The benefits of lithium solutions are well-known by now: longer runtime and cycle life, less maintenance, and improved sustainability. Lithium batteries provide a better return on investment, the ability to optimize critical real property space, and enable the use of Automated Guided Vehicles and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AGVs and AMRs), which rely heavily on durable, “hands-off” lithium batteries. Now that lithium batteries can be an integral part of a lift truck, and there is the option of using a third-party modular lithium battery pack made by a specialist company there is a need to establish standard vocabulary within the industry. How is “chassis Integrated” different from “CAN Integrated” and what exactly does it mean for the lithium battery to be “drop-in”? Will a chassis-integrated or a modular battery pack become the standard? These questions turn out to be pivotal for the development of material handling equipment. In consumer devices powered by lithium batteries (like cell phones), an integrated battery is a standard choice today. A user does not need to pick and choose among multiple options or perform any maintenance on the battery; one size fits all users. But with professional tools and equipment, a modular detachable battery usually does a better job. These different approaches are highly relevant to material handling equipment. Ready to learn more? Contact us now!