Energy Products specialises in battery solutions.

Battery and charging system distributor Energy Products Inc says it is providing the power for forklifts at a major automotive assembly plant in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

The plant's identity was withheld.

Energy Products is supplying its patent-pending charged battery delivery system, which eliminates the need for a room to charge and maintain forklift batteries.

When the supply of charged batteries begins running low, Energy Products delivers a trailer of fully charged batteries and picks up the load of depleted batteries for off-site charging and maintenance.

The system uses another forklift to remove the battery and place it into the trailer and then pull a charged battery from the trailer and place it in the forklift. This process takes approximately 90 seconds, Energy Products says. The battery is never handled directly by a worker.

Kurt H Smith, CEO of Energy Products, says: "The charged battery delivery program is a big win for the factory. It increases usable floor space within the factory, decreases the amount of time required to change a battery and reduces the capital costs associated with operating a battery-charging room." Energy Products owns the batteries, chargers and handling equipment.

Removing the battery room from the factory eliminated environmental issues associated with charging and maintaining the batteries within the facility and upgrades the work environment, Smith notes.

For motive-power applications, Energy Products represents East Penn Manufacturing Co Inc's Deka-brand forklift and materials handling batteries, including the Max Power and Hydra Saver models.

Also, Energy Products represents the lines of Taylor-Dunn and Club Car industrial vehicles.

The Sterling Heights-based firm operates a fleet of 20 vehicles and occupies more than 150,000 sqft. (1,395 sqm) for distribution, office and service-bay functions in its headquarters and other locations in Grand Rapids, Michigan; New Castle, Pennsylvania; and Toledo, Ohio.