Industrial battery manufacturers, but also users. This is the secret that makes Triatech a company that is particularly careful and sensitive to the needs of its customers. We talked about it with the three founding members.
Andrea Sanvito, former Country Manager for many years of a multinational Company leader in the sector of batteries, Alberto Salini and Gabriele Ferrante, both with many years of business experience in logistics, industrial automation and supply chain. These are the men of Triatech who have gained specific skills related to the use of industrial batteries, installed on forklifts or automatic guided machines. Their point of view is not only that of those who offer batteries but also of those who use them.
What does a logistics operator expect from their battery?
The average user expects an excellent quality / price ratio, sometimes giving priority to the economic aspects and neglecting quality. What is mainly evaluated is the purchase price, without taking into consideration any typical indirect costs of poor quality or future savings that a better product is able to guarantee. For many logistics operators, better quality means faster charging and less downtime, i.e. lower overall operating costs plus battery life. Triatech is able to offer storage systems that reduce recharging times, achieving the extraordinary result of being able to charge a battery in just 60 minutes with lithium solutions.
We sometimes hear that "batteries are all the same". Is it true?
Not all batteries are the same. The performance of the batteries can be traced back to the tightness of the discharge curve. Higher quality batteries show discharge curves that drop less rapidly. In other words, for the same amount of time, energy is delivered more constantly. The purchase of a cheaper battery is not always rewarding with respect to the actual needs of use. When the fork lifts are used intensively over multiple work cycles, high performance and therefore high quality become indispensable requirements. Our batteries guarantee high energy performance. There are also sectors or applications that require distinctive characteristics. A good example is the use in temperature-controlled food warehouses. In these temperature conditions, the responses of traditional batteries do not always satisfy operational needs: in the temperature range 0 - 4 degrees centigrade, an optimal solution is represented by the lithium batteries supplied by Triatech.
What are the most critical aspects of battery management?
A critical and underestimated topic concerns the periodic topping up. Unfortunately, the use of non-distilled water is not uncommon, a practice that negatively affects the operating life of the product. Little attention is paid to frequency and timing: sometimes the topping up is done before recharging, resulting in acid leakage during the recharging phase, caused by the boiling of the electrolyte. For this reason, even if it is often considered a waste of time, topping up should be carried out with the necessary frequency, so as not to compromise the efficiency and duration of the cells. Triatech offers innovative and easy-to-use tools for periodic and rapid level control, as well as low-maintenance or gel batteries.
How does Triatech move in relation to energy saving and environmental sustainability?
The widespread environmental awareness and the need to better control costs place more and more emphasis on energy management, which requires careful choices for high-performance batteries with lower energy consumption. For those who are attentive to these aspects, for example, the high-frequency battery charger is a mandatory solution, due to the much lower consumption than conventional ones, not to mention the prolongation of the expected life of the battery. At the moment, the best energy performance with consequent lower consumption is guaranteed by lithium-ion storage systems, which are more efficient than traditional batteries. In terms of eco-sustainability, for lead-acid batteries, the recovery chain has been active, tested and organized for over 20 years, with more than 90% recovery percentages of materials. As for lithium, the recovery and disposal chain it is not yet as well structured as that of lead batteries. It is therefore necessary to rely on serious and conscientious operators. For this reason, Triatech has always been attentive to the circular economy, collaborates with national and European operators to ensure disposal according to standards of absolute excellence, minimizing the related costs.
The law requires lead-acid batteries to be recharged in special, ventilated and adequately equipped rooms. Does it always happen like this? What does your experience say?
It might happen to be in non-optimal situations and the warehouses are not always equipped with properly structured and separate charging rooms. It should be remembered that the incomplete observance of the regulations can also have consequences from an insurance point of view. For this reason, Triatech offers its customers complete solutions for the construction of charging rooms, in partnership with sector specialists, as well as supplying low-impact batteries.