UK
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Early in 2020, Access77 were called in at a critical point to ensure that the ongoing development of the International Convention Centre Wales (ICC Wales) in Newport remained on track.
Following the initial construction phase, ICC Wales had acquired a number of work platforms to facilitate the installation of the internal fittings and then continued to remain on site for ongoing maintenance work. As with all powered access platforms, these were subject to LOLER (lifting operations and lifting equipment regulations) checks on a six-monthly basis and also required regular, routine servicing.
Fortunately for the site management team at ICC Wales, as well as providing powered access platforms, Access77 also provide specialist LOLER thorough examinations for non-hired plant. During one of our scheduled LOLER examinations, our plant engineer was asked to take a look at a brand-new CMC S19N Tracked Boom Lift which was no longer able to take a charge.
During the initial disruption caused by COVID-19, the Tracked Boom had been left unused for a few months. It was suspected that as a result of inactivity, the lithium batteries had fallen below the minimum charge level and had slipped into sleep mode. The cost of replacing all of the lithium batteries would be excessive.
Our Plant Engineer quickly identified that all fifteen of the lithium batteries were inactive and because the machine charger was unable to read a minimum of 2.2 volts per cell, the charging process could not begin. To overcome this issue, we used an independent charger to manually force a small charge to activate the protection circuit so that the correct cell voltage could be reached. This was achieved by connecting one charger to two batteries so that the retained voltage met the criteria allowing it to start charging one battery at a time. Once this was achieved a lithium cell charger was connected for 4 hours per cell to boost the voltage higher. This was, however, a time consuming method as it meant returning to site every day for eight days to transfer the leads to allow each battery to charge to a level which meant the CMC S19N was functional again.
In addition to the repair and servicing completed, our engineers also designed and fitted a bracket for a new 32amp SKVA transformer, this now powers the electric motor which in turn operates the charger for the lithium batteries and runs 110v to power the platform. With the LOLER recertification the unit is now fully back up and running and continuing to support the ongoing developments at the International Convention Centre.
