Battery charging is a complex electrochemical process, in which the discharged electric energy must be replenished from the electric network. The quality of the charging process is critical tothe health and longevity of batteries. As a result, battery chargers play a key role in the life and performance of today’s industrial batteries.

A battery charger is an electrical/electronic device that converts the incoming AC line voltage into a regulated DC voltage to meet the charging needs of the respective battery (see Fig. 1).

Although today’s industrial battery charging market is dominated by Ferro resonant and SCR type chargers, which have been in existence for many years, new high frequency battery charging technologies is making headways into the industrial battery charger markets. This isdue to the higher efficiencies and smaller sizes and weights that a high frequency charger offers over Ferro resonant and SCR types.

SCR Chargers:

SCR battery chargers use SCRs (silicon controlled rectifiers) along with conventional transformers to regulate the charger output (see Fig. 4). Since the SCR switching action is controlled, SCRs provide more precise control of output voltage and can be easily interfaced with a microprocessor to implement various charging profiles. Unlike ferroresonant types, SCR chargers are less sensitive to line frequency variations and work well with all types of batteries including sealed types.

One of the limitations of SCR controlled chargers is that they generate un-smoothed DC voltages resulting in higher ripple voltages and consequently higher ripple currents. These currents can cause additional battery heating especially at high charge rates (e.g. fast charging).

Similar to ferroresonant chargers, SCR chargers operate at line frequencies (50/60Hz) and use alow frequency transformer for isolation and voltage step-down and thus are bulky and heavy.

Unlike ferroresonant types, the power factor is poorer resulting in higher kVA power intake.

If you have any requirements or any kind of query regarding the Battery charger solutions for your applications, feel free to communicate with our dedicated team at any time at marketing@everexceed.com.