ABERTAX Innovationen waren eine Attraktion auf der CeMAT 2011

ABERTAX Innovationen waren eine Attraktion auf der CeMAT 2011 in Hannover für Besucher und Austeller.

Auf der CeMAT 2011 hat Abertax Technologies wieder einmal eine neue Innovation der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt.

Nach dem Erfolg mit dem patentierten Kapazitiven Elektrolyt Füllstandsmesser (ABERTAX CLS) stellte Abertax in diesem Jahr das neue Online Batterie Management System (OBM) vor.

Die vielen internationalen Aktivitäten und Präsentationen auf den führenden Konferenzen und Ausstellungen haben bewiesen, dass ein Batterie-Management-System ein “MUSS” nicht nur für Lithium Batterien, sondern für alle mobile Anwendungen ist.

Mit dem ABERTAX OBM, könnte Abertax nun auf ihrem Stand vorführen, wie die Batterie über einen Webbrowser, aber auch z.B. einem iPad überwacht werden. Die umfangreichen Feldtests bei führenden Herstellern konnten so eindrucksvoll dargestellt werden.

Die vielen Besucher waren sich einig, dass mit dem ABERTAX OBM System die Schwierigkeiten bei Zugriff auf die Batteriedaten beseitigt sind, da die Batteriedaten regelmäßig an einen Internetserver übergeben werden und somit kritische Zustände gemeldet werden können, aber auch Langzeitbetrachtungen möglich sind. “Die erste Batterie die sprechen kann”, hat, so Björn Mentzer, Vizepräsident Marketing und Sales, hat Abertax somit der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt. Das ABERTAX OBM leistet aber auch seinen Beitrag zur CO2 Reduzierung, da Fahrtkosten für Serviceeinsätze deutlich reduziert werden können. Es leistet auch seinen Beitrag zur Kostensenkung, da die Servicezeiten ebenfalls vermindert werden können und somit die Türen für ein profitables Geschäft eröffnen.

Das ABERTAX OBM kann mit den Produkten BMU und BMS verbunden werden und somit auch Bestandteil des patenterten intelligenten Batteriesystems sein.

Alle Produkte von Abertax sind ein Ergebnis der unermüdlichen Forschungs- und Entwicklungsarbeit von Abertax Technologies seines Expertenteams. KD Merz, bekannt in der Batteriebranche für seine umfassenden Kenntnisse über Batterietechnologie und Professor Dr. Joseph Cilia und sein Entwicklungsteam sind der Garant für diesen Erfolg.

CeMAT fair in Hannover

ABERTAX  innovation attracts the attention of leaders in material handling equipment at the CeMAT fair in Hannover.

The presence of Abertax Technologies at the CeMAT fair has again brought the press’s attention with their latest innovations on the various patented products.

With their success with their Capacitive level sensor this year however, Abertax surprised the material handling industry with their latest “Online” battery monitoring system.

It looks that with their international activities and presentations at leading conferences such as the last ELBC in Istanbul, they managed to get the attraction of major battery companies and proved that Battery Management is a must, not only for the lithium technology.

With the team of professionals on the stand Abertax could show how “online” battery monitoring (OBM) can now be done even from an iPad in the palm of your hands. Using their various field tests with leading OEM manufacturers , they could show the technology in action on their big screen or on iPads for those who wanted to play a bit around with the iPad OBM application. This will surely overcome all the difficulties with other existing systems that hinder the easy access of the battery data at “any time” and from “anyware”. Speaking to their Vice President Bjoern Mentzer, he quoted their design concept behind this development “Let the battery speak independently”. And we have to admit that this is the way forward in our democratic world with prices of resources fluctuating up and down on a daily basis. This development could not come at a better time when efficient use of manpower is surely one way of securing a profitable business.

We have also to mention that the ever- increasing cost of transport, will surely add a profit to those who can optimise on the use of this technology which can help in the logistics of servicing the battery.

This development is the result of extensive research and development Abertax has done through their team of experts. KD Merz who has a vast experience in the battery industry and needs no introduction has been instrumental with his guidance to the team of researchers headed by Professor Dr Joseph Cilia. This innovation can also be embedded in their intelligent battery concept which has already been licensed to various battery manufacturers. This creativity comes at the right time for an industry which seems to be booming again.

Case Study Pilot project: Performance of Electric vehicles on small island and in small cities

Case study 1:   Pilot  project:  Performance  of  Electric  vehicles  on  small  island  and  in  small cities (Klaus-Dieter Merz / Joseph Cilia Abertax)

The ongoing pilot project has been running since 2002 on the archipelago Malta, Gozo and Comino, three small islands located in the central Mediterranean. The test areas are made up of low hills, steep-sided valleys and  small  areas  of  plain.  The  total  length of  a  line  trending  NW  to  SE covering the three islands is 50 km.

The EV fleet consists of 20 Reva cars. As the daily distances traveled are limited to a few tens of km, the islands are an ideal place for EV use as a means of reducing emissions and energy use in transport. The cars are used by a variety of owners but it became clear during the test that domestic use for commuting to work and back became dominant.

Figure 1 Reva cars used for daily use and as a field test facility of battery accessories in Industry

No serious accidents were reported and the max car speed of 65km/hr was adequate on the Maltese roads were speed is generally limited to 60 km/hr with some exceptions going up to 70km/hr. Acceleration at traffic lights and roundabouts which is essential is very good and better than that of a similar size of car. Speed drops to about 40 km/hr on most hills and this was found to be somewhat limiting.

Figure 2 Sector Vs average km /car

Motor controlled by a four quadrant DC controller. The heart of the system is an energy management system, which controls the drive and charger while sending the necessary critical information to the driver’s display. The same car today has better performance due to the use of AC drive technology which is highly encourage for a number of reasons;The technology of the cars used is very basic and is still using the DC drive technology. The cars are equipped with a 48V 200Ah tubular plate flooded lead acid battery pack and a separately excited DC

1. cheaper and more robust
2. no maintenance
3. higher efficiency
4. higher peak power to size ratio

  

The range of the car varied from 55km to 65 km depending on the journey and way of driving. The economy switch which limits the current to 200A was very useful especially to ensure a good range when the batteries start to age. The batteries lasted up to 8 years and covered up to 40,000km (approx 800cycles if you take an average of 50km per charge which consumes 9kWhr of electricity i.e. 180Whr/km) for very careful drivers who made regular use of the economy switch. However there were also some surprises especially with lower quality batteries. The cost of the disturbance, disappointment of customers and guarantee claims is surely much more than the cost difference between the lowest and highest quality batteries together with a sophisticated management unit. In our pilot project an online BMU with internet data access was added to each car and this improved the battery performance enormously as we could detect what was the cause of any trouble. Most of the battery problems occurred during winter time and hardly anything during summer. One has to point out here that in this region the  lowest winter temperatures is around 8deg while the highest is around 40deg. Most of the year the temperature is between 20 and 30deg. Colder countries experienced much more trouble.

This pilot project has shown that EVs are economically viable and even the lead acid technology can be ideal for daily transport on small islands or cities worldwide. In order to improve the reliability and reduce maintenance,  AC drives and the use of the highest quality batteries with a proper management unit are a must. Obviously the setting up of the right infrastructure including high technical servicing facilities is vital for the success of EVs.

The EV trend line in figure 3 ranges from 310Wh/km down to 160Wh/km.  These can be compared to 450Wh/km for a petrol engine vehicle with a consumption of 5litres/100km.  From the point of view of emissions, the absence of tailpipe emissions from vehicles moving on the narrow streets of maltese towns and villages offers a great advantage. Transferred emissions from the EV go from 300g CO₂/km to 155g CO₂/km, taking a Malta value of 970g CO₂/kWh delivered to the grid.  The upper value is higher than the CO₂ emissions from current models of small cars but it does represent a situation where one covers less than 5km/day in the EV.  A more realistic daily distance of 15km/day gives a CO₂ emission of 218g CO₂/km, which is similar to current ICE models but higher than the average (120gCO₂/km) Euro5 standard. These emission advantages are further enhanced in cases where a significant fraction of the car fleet carries no catalytic converters or short distances make catalytic converters inefficient.

Figure 3 kWhr/km vs average km/day

The fuel cost of running an EV has been worked out using the standard residential unit cost of €0.17 per unit.  The average distance covered by the fleet was 15km/day; that would cost €0.24/day or €1.68/week. The fuel to run  a small ICE would cost  would cost €1.05/day or €7.30/week at current fuel prices (€1.39/ltr). These are realistic values which consider normal daily usage as well as self-discharge of batteries.

The project proved that with the right team of professional this can be implemented and maintained over a good period of time. Without any doubt high quality and robust design of every part of the drive system has to be ensured in order for the electric car to compete with the quality and reliability of modern ICE cars. Customer feedback also has shown that they expect the design and comfort of electric cars should be of the same quality and standard of the equivalent ICE engines.

Government support is crucial at the initial stage; in fact the three main incentives that were introduced by the Maltese Government have contributed to the success of this pilot project. There is now increased interest in ensuring an increase in the number of electric cars on the road especially in Europe. This is mainly due to the targets set out by the European Union with respect to particle emissions.

An Innovative Catamaran Design using Abertax Online Battery Management.

An Innovative Catamaran Design using Abertax  Online Battery Management.

Following the success of the traditional electric boat, a team of experts from the University supported by Abertax , designed and built a Solar Catamaran. Professor Joseph Cilia who forms part of the Department of Industrial Electrical Power Conversion at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Malta, is in charge of this project which is being sponsored by a number of interested parties.  

The Catamaran is designed to run from Solar Energy . It has  a Fuel Cell on board that  assists the Photovoltaic Energy in the case of cloudy weather. The catamaran is powered by 6 High Quality Photovoltaic panels supplied by IBC Solar.  Two sets of  24V 100Ahr batteries are used for storage of energy. The Abertax online battery management unit, which was presented at the ELBC conference in Istanbul last September, is here used, to manage and ensure that battery energy is available to keep the boat running at all times. Apart from the necessary battery information, it also provides the position via a GPRS signal to the internet. This patent pending technology, is a very useful tool and will be used to study the performance of the catamaran while running. It is also intended to incorporate an autopilot in the future.

This project is still in progress and during this year the catamaran performance will be tested and the results will be published. For further details or sponsorship please contact Professor Joseph Cilia below.

TQM Research Project

Professor Joseph Cilia  (Project leader)

Professor Charles Pule    

Mr Charles Azzopardi  (Project manager)

Ing KD Merz

Ing Malcolm  Tabone

Ing Ian Busutil

Mr Donald Cassar

Contact:

Email:  j.cilia@abertax.com / jcilia@eng.um.edu.mt

Mob:    00356 99252393

Online Battery Monitor

State-of-the-art-wireless technology for cost-cutting operation and provide a quality service. Opens new opportunities in material handling applications. Saves cost up to 20%.

One major drawback in battery operating equipment has always been “The capital cost of the battery and related guarantee issues” apart from the onsite maintenance that can be reduced drastically with suitable battery management systems. In addition these allow rental or leasing concepts whereby the rental costs are based on used energy.

Abertax Technologies Ltd. is the specialist when it comes to Battery Management Systems. Almost 25 year field experience resulted in very precise algorithms for accurate calculation of the energy balance taking into consideration all influencing factors such as temperature, deep discharge, overcharge etc. and is now able to introduce the ideal Battery Management System for this new and commercially very attractive option in the material handling business.

The main functions of this system are;

•      Battery control with alarm functions at high temperature, low acid level, deep discharge, etc.

•      Data measurement and storage of all battery data and operation conditions

•      Calculation of battery energy, cycles, SOC and life time

•      Statistics of all data are stored in short and long term history

•      Data transmission via RS232, USB or wireless

•      Remote diagnosis and automatic failure alarm indications

•      Calculation of energy consumption for rental and leasing service

•      Fleet management

The latest innovation is a major step towards the ability to “Sell Energy – Not Battery “. The Online Battery Monitor provides the necessary data on the desktop of any computer at any time at any location. The design has been concentrated on the concept of “let the battery speak independently”, and for this reason, mobile communication through GPRS was selected as the direct link between the battery and internet.

The main advantages of Online Battery Monitor are:

•      Availability from any place in the world

•      Information access at any time

•      Saves driving costs (CO2 friendly)

•      Complex data analysm for service and warranty

•      needs no hardware installation on site

•      can be easily installed on any battery in a couple of minutes

It is very clear that a battery will perform better in all motive power applications if a Battery Management System is used. This small upfront investment is more than worth it, when looking at the advantages gained. The idea of transferring data via mobile telephony has made the battery independent and this opens a wide range of new opportunities such as to “Charge for the Energy and not the Battery” – something which could never be implemented before. With similar bills received on all other service we use daily, such as the mobile phone itself, Abertax Technologies Ltd. strongly believe that customers will accept or expect this in the future !

www.abertax.com

Abertax - Int. Patent Protection on all Products

Product made in the European Union

 

INTERNET BATTERY MANAGEMENT

PROFILE: INTERNET BATTERY MANAGEMENT

Better battery management and monitoring could revolutionise the way we look at energy storage.



Charge for energy, not batteries



Would you buy a car without a fuel gauge? Or without a thermometer to measure engine temperature? Or meter to look at the mileage? Of course not. How on earth could you maintain your car in a healthy shape?

More to the point, would you sell such a product — and also offer a warranty of the car’s reliability! — to your customers? Because that’s the situation as it stands with the present business model we have for buying and selling batteries. The customer receives a battery, and related warranty, without any means to check that the battery will perform as required.

“The trouble is battery life is a function of usage and its environment,” says Klaus-Dieter Merz, a battery veteran having spent almost three decades with Exide (Sonnenschein) and now a vice president of Abertax Technologies.

“High discharge currents, high temperatures, deep discharges and low acid levels, can dramatically reduce battery life. Different operational conditions have a big impact on real battery life and the theoretical lifetime of 1200 cycles can be either higher or lower depending on the complete drive system design.

If the battery fails before its lifetime (warranty) there are always arguments between the customer and supplier on whether the battery was of low quality or the battery was abused during its use.

“This approach to business is out-dated,” says Merz.

It also looks irrelevant when you realise that the initial investment in the hardware of a battery and charger is only about a third of the overall operational cost in the service life of a battery. The other two thirds are equally shared between the energy cost and the service cost.

It is clear that a battery management unit is a vital piece of equipment in motive power applications.

Jospeh Cilia, a professor at the University of Malta, has spent most of his academic and business life looking at the issue. He is also the chief executive at Abertax. “As a firm we’re a specialist in such battery management,” he says. “We’ve almost 20 years’ field experience has resulted in precise algorithms for accurate calculation of the energy balance taking into consideration all influencing factors such as temperature, deep discharge, overcharge and the like.”

Abertax has two fully developed products suitable for all motive power applications. Both devices, the BMS (Battery Monitoring System) and the BMU (Battery Management Unit) are built in robust, acid proof plastic boxes (IP 66). Both can be enhanced with optional accessories to meet all requirements in motive power applications.

Long experience in battery data measurement in field applications has resulted in extensive battery data and algorithms that make the software in these systems one of the most precise and reliable in the market. The software designed is user-friendly and can be easily modified to suit particular customer needs. Both devices have the ability to measure necessary parameters like:

Temperature (battery and ambient);

Electrolyte level;

Half voltage; and,

Current.



The main advantages of these available systems are they are all:

Based on the same algorithm and are therefore precise and reliable;

Re-programmable and can be used for other batteries;

Enhanced with other features (fan, SOC indicator, charger control); and,

Adjustable to specific customer requirements



The main functions are:

Battery control with alarm function at high temperature, low acid level, deep discharge, etc;

Data measurement and storage of all battery data and operation conditions;

Calculation of battery energy, cycles, SOC and life;

Statistics of all data are stored in short and long term history;

Data transmission via RS232, USB or wireless;

Remote diagnosis and automatic failure alarm indications;

Calculation of energy consumption for rental and leasing service; and,

Fleet management.




Field experience has shown that while the above data is useful and welcomed by any service provider and customer, they are reluctant to go through the trouble of connecting to the device to get the data.

Basically, if data has to be read out near or directly on the vehicle, this consumes time and accessibility of the vehicle is not guaranteed. In most cases this is a cumbersome task. Moreover, the technicians who carry out routine battery maintenance are not usually expected to run around with a laptop.

However even if this is the case, wireless communication methods that were used so far, such as infrared, bluetooth, wifi, zigbee, etc have marked limitations and involve the customer’s infrastructure which cannot be guaranteed at all times. Therefore while everybody can see the advantages of having such a battery management unit, only a few decide to implement it due to its “offline” operation.

Abertax Technologies has designed Online Battery Management whereby the independent battery uses mobile communication through GPRS between the battery and the internet.

Although this is not the cheapest option of accessing the data it is the most reliable and ensures a quality service. Advances in mobile telephony mean that even third world countries can take advantage of these benefits.

The main advantages of Online Battery Management are:



available from any location;

24/7 availability;

saves driving cost (CO2 friendly);

needs no hardware installation on site; and,

can easily installed on any battery in a couple of minutes.



“This small upfront investment is more than worth the extra expense when looking at the advantages gained,” says Björn Mentzer, vice president for marketing at Abertax. “The idea of transferring data via mobile telephony has made the battery independent. This opens a wide range of new opportunities such as to charge for the energy and not the battery — something which could never be implemented before.

“Given that we already expect similar billing for other services, such as mobile phones and the like, Abertax Technologies strongly believe that customers will expect this in the future!”


http://www.abertax.com/uploads/media/E1002-01-BMU_brochure.pdf


QUOTE BOX

This opens a wide range of new opportunities such as to charge for the energy and not the battery — something which could never be implemented before

Abertax releases another version of their Innovative Valve for VRLA batteries – The GRS M27 Valve.

GRS M27

Abertax releases another version of their Innovative Valve for VRLA batteries – The GRS M27 Valve.

GRS 

Abertax, the Malta-based company manufacturing advanced battery, accessories, has released their innovative valve for providing the ideal gas release system (GRS) in M27 size as well now, making their technology available for a wider range of 2V cells in VRLA batteries — both for gel and high quality absorbent glass matt (AGM).

Until now the patented valve has only been available in the smaller M18 size. Abertax says other sizes will be later made available — the M27s became available at the end of March — and an adaptor 27 with bayonet fitting should appear shortly.

Since battery venting is the prime reason for humidity loss in VRLA batteries, the GRS design and technology providing the right release pressure of a better valve can dramatically keep moisture levels higher and so extend the battery life. Additionally, the diaphragm design in the GRS also ensures the prevention of air entering the cells which potentially damages the plates.

“One of the prime advantages of our GRS is the very low tolerances of closing pressure consistency of our opening and closing pressures,” says Dr Joseph Cilia, the research Director of Abertax. “And we have rigorously tested them in some extreme field conditions.”

The valve can be supplied in various ranges of opening pressures, with the lowest range starting at 150mbar and the highest with an opening pressure at 400mbar. Thus the valve can be designed to give the optimal pressure for any battery size and design.

To ensure the consistency of the GRS, Abertax devised special calibration equipment to measure these pressures.

Although the fundamental chemistry of the lead acid battery is virtually unchanged since the mid-19th century, Mr KD Merz, the battery expert at Abertax, says there are still refinements to be made. “For the past decade or more battery developers have looked to alternative chemistries in seeking an advanced battery,” he says. “And engineering design in and around the battery has been left relatively unexplored.”

Research into the economies that a high quality valve such as the GRS can bring has been scarce, say Abertax, and has been difficult to quantify as gassing and venting are often a function of how efficiently or inefficiently charging or discharging a battery is being carried out.

However, all manufacturers are aware that a better GRS produces a better battery.

Abertax presently produces around 500,000 GRS a year but it has spare production capacity to make up to 2 million annually from its headquarters in Paola in Malta. “But we’re planning to up production to around 11 million a year in the next couple of years,” says Ing George Schembri, general manager at Abertax.

Abertax reckons that there will be a big increase in demand for GRS for the new ‘stop-and-go’ applications as well as for the new generation of electric vehicles requiring further AGM batteries.

The firm, which has invested extensively in research and development — and has the capability to design and manufacture most of the machinery needed to produce a new range of GRS in-house — believes that automation provides it with a competitive edge against competition from Asian economies where labor costs are low.

“Once you have devised one set of machinery to produce the GRS,” says Ing Schembri who is an engineer specialized in high quality manufacturing. “It’s simply a question of replicating them to scale up production.”

Abertax says its original M18 valve has already undergone years of testing — both in-house and through independent monitoring in German laboratories — in a rugged, dirty environment, including prolonged exposure to sulphuric acid and dust, and has not been found wanting.

Article by Mike Hall Batteries International Magazine 2011

GRS M27 Safety Valve for VRLA Batteries

GRS M27 - Safety Valve for VRLA Batteries

(GEL and high quality AGM)

Innovative Ideas for your Battery!

This patented valve, developed and produced by Abertax, has been proven in field for many years now. In particular in heavy duty applications, where the batteries are exposed to very dirty environment and high temperatures, this valve is one of the most important parts of the battery. It is designed with the main aim of enhancing the overall lifetime of the battery itself. The relatively high closing pressure in combination with the extreme good and constant values of opening and closing pressures prevent a high water loss from the cells, thus improving the expected life cycle of the batteries.

Until now only a threaded M18 valve, suitable for smaller block batteries, was available. Abertax is pleased to announce that the same patented valve technology has now been developed for bigger batteries, in particular for 2 Volt cells in M27 design. This version is the first one to be introduced and is already available. Soon, another version with a bayonet fitting will be launched.

It must be emphasized, that the same reliable and robust patented technology used in the M18 valve is also incorporated in the bigger M27 valve, and will always be kept in any other versions offered by Abertax in the future.

GRS M27

Battery manufacturers who are interested in testing this valve are kindly asked to send their requirements to: info@abertax.com

Int. Patent Protection on all Products

The most igenious things that drive our world are simple inventions.

This autumn saw the launch of THE WATERVALVE website and the launch of all the support material that normally goes along with such a launch.

Brochure, mailing cards and of course a DVD showing off all the advantages of our new product.

A film team was found filming in and around our Company for a number of days in the summer and a lot of us got a chance to be movie stars. The result is a very informative and nice to watch DVD about Abertax the Company and of course the informative DVD just about the advantages of our 
WATERVALVE over other valves.

The DVD  is to be used to introduce the THE WATERVALVE onto the UK market as a specialized filling valve for water tanks.
Our latest collaborator Joe Grech a fellow Maltese who previously worked for  the big UK Company Hoover has started up his own marketing Business called Business Solutions International Ltd. and he is intending to find for Abertax a mayor outlet in the UK. His experience in the field will go a long way to help us introduce our THE WATERVALVE to the UK market. If you would like to watch the DVD yourself log on to www.thewatervalve.com

We have been informed by the Chambers of Engineers that our Magnetic Water Inlet Valve Project has been nominated for the Malta Engineering Excellence Award.

This truly is reward for all the time hard work and expertise that has gone into our Water Valve!
Well Done Everybody!