Easy Battery Filling

A specially designed mobile water filling station helps maintenance staff fill Saft rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries on board rail vehicles to the correct level of electrolyte quickly and efficiently, reports IRJ.

The mobile unit is intended to be used with Saft’s new generation Matrics (mass transit and rail integrated compact system) MRX battery, which has an integrated water filling system as standard; but it can be used with the SRX high power and SRM emergency power battery ranges.

The filling station comprises a 60-liter container for de-ionized water, two electric pumps, fill and return hoses, a pressure regulator, and a flow counter to display the quantity of water dispensed. All are mounted on a mobile hand trolley that can be powered from the mains or from its own battery to provide five hours of autonomy.

The operator connects the fill and return hoses to the battery and presses a start button. The pump then delivers water at up to 0.7 liters per minute until the flow from the return hose indicates that the battery is full to the correct level. At this point the filling process stops automatically.

Contact Saft, 12 rue Sadi Carnot, 93170 Bagnolet, France, phone: +33 (0)1 49 93 19 18, fax: +33 (0)1 49 93 19 50, or visit www.saftbatteries.com.