Charge military or industrial batteries for air shipment

Air transport regulations require Lithium-ion batteries that are packed by themselves — i.e. not installed in or packed with the device they will power — to be shipped at a state-of-charge (SoC) not exceeding 30 per cent of their rated design capacity. For this reason, battery manufacturer, Ultralife Corporation, has developed a new charger (the UCH0057-01) that can set its smart UBI-2590 military and industrial batteries to a compliant level.

Being able to ship Ultralife’s smart UBI-2590 batteries by air is essential as they are used by militaries and consumers across the globe. Although the regulations stipulate that batteries should be charged to less than 30 per cent, Ultralife’s new charger sets the smart batteries to 20 per cent to give extra reassurance.

The new charger can be used to charge one battery at a time. The charge to 20 per cent mode is activated by a push-button on the front of the charger. When pressed, two LED lights either side of the button will flash yellow to indicate that the battery is charging. When the lights flash yellow and green sequentially, the battery has charged to 20 per cent.

The UCH0057-01 charger can set any compatible smart UBI-2590 battery to 20 per cent. This includes the MIL-PRF-32383/3(CR) certified UBBL10-01 and UBBL13-01 for military use (plus the commercially labelled -CB versions). Non-smart UBI-2590 batteries can also be charged, but not using the air shipment button.

Smart UBI-2590 batteries contain two independent battery sections, which can be connected in either series or parallel mode to increase voltage or capacity respectively. Users can sense check the charger by looking at two fuel gauges (one for each section) at the top of the battery. Each fuel gauge displays the state-of-charge of its section in 5 LED segments (each representing 20 per cent charge). Therefore, if the charger has finished its task, one LED should be lit in each fuel gauge.

“Feedback from our military and industrial customers made it apparent that having a convenient way to charge UBI-2590 batteries to less than 30 per cent was essential,” explained Eric Lind, vice-president of Ultralife. “This new charger is SBS v1.1 compliant to ensure accurate measurement of the charging levels. Furthermore, safety circuits in the charger protect against charging shorted packs.”