Last month, Managing Director Ken Clark presented a battery management webinar to members of the Society of Operations Engineers (SOE) and the Norfolk Institute of Road Transport Engineers (IRTE).

Having previously partnered with the IRTE and SOE, Ken was invited to host the webinar to share insights with attendees on battery management within the automotive industry. Attendees included workshop managers and owners, as well as members with an interest in the automotive industry.

Ken was delighted to have been invited to present to the SOE and IRTE and will be involved in future webinars and explained “We have recognised the importance of not only providing quality battery management equipment to our customers, but also ensuring it is used correctly to support key workshop objectives and cost-drivers”.

Current Battery Management Statistics

During the webinar, we asked members to answer a series of polls. Results showed that 92% of technicians weren’t testing the battery of every vehicle that enters their workshop, and over 75% of attending technicians weren’t charging batteries that were in need of it.

This highlighted that workshops were missing potential battery defects, which in time could result in costly battery replacements or vehicle non-starts. Increased battery replacements and non-starts all result in increased battery budgets for workshops, with reduced productivity and reputations.

Results of another poll showed that almost 35% of attendees had never have their workshop battery equipment serviced or calibrated, which is imperative on an annual basis. If battery equipment is not serviced or calibrated regularly, it can cause additional issues around battery misdiagnosis, due to damaged or ineffective equipment.

Scroll down to read more of the topics Ken discussed.

A History of Battery Management

Ken discussed a timeline of previous battery management technology to identify why current products such as ROBIS are required by workshops to service modern battery defects.

ROBIS was discussed in-depth, as a remote, web-based reporting system essential for fleet battery analysis in workshops. ROBIS allows workshop managers to remotely analyse battery health data for early battery defect detection, in addition to supporting warranty claims which can be immediately processed and submitted when they are detected.

Current Testing and Charging Trends

Common battery faults such as sulfation were discussed, to educate workshop managers and technicians about the latest testing and charging trends within battery management.

SOE and IRTE members benefit from discussing solutions to common battery management trends and defects, as they will likely experience these issues in the workshop on a daily basis.

Conductance profiling was also discussed in-depth, including explanations of charge acceptance and reserve capacity. Charge acceptance is a battery’s ability to accept charge current, whereas reserve capacity is a measure of the battery’s ability to sustain a minimum system voltage under load in the event of a charging system failure. 

24v Battery Sets

The presentation gave insight into the importance of keeping 24v battery sets balanced, which are typically present within vehicles used by the IRTE, such as busses or trucks. This is important for fleet workshops managers and technicians as batteries will not perform efficiently with varying levels of charge acceptance. If one 12v battery within the set has a defect, the system as a whole will experience issues.

Electric Vehicle Battery Management

Ken wrapped up the webinar by highlighting the importance of 12v batteries within electric vehicles, as they still remain a crucial power source for on-board electronics and computer systems.

There are limited automotive webinars surrounding battery management in the industry, so the SOE and IRTE proactively organised a webinar on the topic, to develop battery management solutions for their workshops and technicians. This supports workshops with increased productivity and reduced battery replacement budgets due to improved processes. 

Our next upcoming webinar will be presented to the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI https://tide.theimi.org.uk/) on the 29^th of June.

If any automotive organisations are interested in hosting a Rotronics webinar, please call 0121 514 0605 and Ken will be happy to answer any questions you may have.