AMAG

AMAG Austria Metall GmbH, Austria’s largest aluminium smelter, uses more than 150 electrically powered forklift trucks to handle the internal flow of ma-terials at its production site in Ranshofen. The largest trucks have a load capa-city of twelve tonnes, which enables them to transport the huge aluminium plates. To avoid long downtimes, forklift trucks and tractor units in particular are equipped with back-up batteries.

Charging of the numerous traction batteries and the associated electricity consumption represents a considerable cost factor for AMAG. To reduce the amount of electricity used by the fleet and comply with the latest energy ef-ficiency legislation, the company opted for innovative battery charging sys-tems from Fronius. With a total efficiency of up to 84 percent, the chargers from the latest generation of Selectiva battery charging systems are conside-rably more efficient than conventional solutions and their gentle charging process also extends the service life of the expensive traction batteries.

AMAG invested in a photovoltaic system with four Fronius inverters back in 2013 with the aim of supplying its intralogistics operation with low cost, sus-tainable levels of electricity. The combination of the two technologies has re-sulted in considerable savings for the company. At the same time it ensures that the forklift trucks are always available, even when working under such difficult conditions.