STATIONARY BATTERIES

SBS produces a complete selection of lead acid flooded, sealed VRLA, Gel, NiCad & specialty batteries for a variety of reserve, stationary, critical, network & motive power applications. SBS has developed numerous intermediate sizes that allow us to "fine tune" your battery selection to match your autonomy requirements so that you do not pay for more battery than you need. Expertise in battery chemistry, technology & fabrication combine to provide you a dc power solution with 10, 20 & 25 year warranties. Our unique perspective has given us the opportunity to produce remarkable innovations in battery design, assembly & accessories. SBS has developed specific cell technology & grid designs to suit the requirements of specialized market applications as found within Telecommunications Network Power, Mission-Critical Data Power, Utility Power Generation & Control environments. Small rechargeable secondary power stationary batteries are also available for your OEM application.

• VRLA - valve regulated lead acid
• SLA - sealed lead acid
• AGM - absorbent glass mat
• Ni-Cad - nickel cadmium
• Lead-calcium
• Lead-selenium
• Lithium-ion
• metal-hydrate/hydride
• flooded wet cell
• gelled electrolyte - 'gel cells'

Selenium Myth #1

"selenium grid wet cells require more water"

FALSE - Any minor additional water use can be eliminated by adjusting the float voltage to a lower level that is tolerable to a selenium design but not to a calcium design.

Selenium Myth #2

"selenium is not suited for float applications (telecom) because the Antimony component contaminates the negative grid"

FALSE - Selenium alloy adequately stablizes the very small amount of Antimony percentage & prevents its migration to the negative grid.

Selenium Myth#3

"selenium designs require longer recharges"

FALSE - Selenium-alloy batteries typically will recharge 30-40% faster than lead-calcium making them ideal for high-rate UPS applications.

Selenium Myth#4

"selenium cells fail exactly like lead-calcium batteries"

FALSE - Selenium alloy grids tend to fail very gradually, even more so than lead-calcium over the life of the battery lending it very well to Ohmic value monitoring for predictive metrics.  In fact, IEEE Std 450 capacity testing was defined to address the unpredictable failure mode of lead-calcium designs.  Although not specifically excluded from such suggestions, a case could be made that Selenium designs are exempt from this requirement. 

Lead-Calcium VS. Lead-Selenium Stationary Batteries - Don't Be Fooled

An ongoing war of words is being conducted by various manufacturers regarding the benefit of these particular metallic alloys utilized in the design of stationary batteries.  SBS produces batteries of both design constructions & has considerable years of experience in the application, performance & maintenance of each.  Regardless of the "marketing noise" that is routinely sold to the commercial user, there is not a substantitive difference in the operation or performance of these battery topologies.  Both designs offer reliable operation in float & high-rate applications.  SBS favors the Selenium design in 20 year service life product primarily for its suitability to measurement & monitoring.  We generally utilize lead-calcium in the 10 year VRLA product due to cost constraints. However, the real issue is centered far more towards the needs of the manufacturer & his inventory.  It is simply that lead-calcium cells offer a longer shelf life after production than lead-selenium.  This means that they can sit in the warehouse 3 months longer or more without special handling by 'freshening' re-charge.  SBS has chosen to utilize the low-antimony selenium grid design in certain product families because of its better characteristics in deep discharges & its tendancy to offer predictable & advanced 'end of life' indications.  We believe that those advantages outweigh the need to re-charge batteries should our inventory planning exceed our actual sales. Other manufacturers prefer to extract the longest shelf-life that they possibly can without the 'extra' handling. Feel free to call SBS Engineering Services at 800-554-2243 xt 309 for more information regarding the comparison of lead-calcium & lead-selenium stationary batteries as related to your specific installation.

                               Selenium Vs. Calcium - Battcon 2004 Whitepaper

Selenium Myth#5

"selenium cells will experience positive plate growth & their cases will bulge"

FALSE - Positive plate growth & case bulging are modes of failure ONLY with the aging of lead-calcium designs.  Selenium designs do not experience this characteristic to a truly measurable extent.  In fact, it is a design benefit in selecting lead-selenium.

STATIONARY BATTERY RACKS-CABINETS-ENCLOSURES 

SBS provides a wide variety of racking systems, cabinets, enclosures & spill containment as well as main battery disconnects for any battery system whether flooded, sealed, indoor or outdoor. We provide both matching & non-matching battery cabinets for every major UPS & can install our superior high-rate series for any autonomy runtime, of course! Battery racks are available in any Seismic rating (Zone 1, 2, 3 or 4) & can be custom fabricated for unique installations. Specialized enclosures with passive & active temperature control are available. Racks & cabinets are available for any brand or model of battery. When coupled with SBS battery cells, SBS racking can be tailored for ultra-high density footprints while allowing optimum access for maintenance & testing. An equally large selection of traditional berm/liner spill containment options are available including the proprietary SBS EconoPan® that offers unlimited flexibility & outstanding value.    

MAIN BATTERY DISCONNECT SWITCHES

SBS produces a number of main battery disconnect switches ranging in capacity from 100 to 4000 dc Amps and bus voltages from 24 to 600vdc.  The MBD is commonly used to isolate a large battery plant from the discharge/recharge bus in order to provide a means of protection for safety and a means of isolation for maintenance.  The MBD is available with a variety of features to promote proper usage including shunt trip modules (S.T.), under-voltage releases (UVR), dry signaling contacts,  motor driven reclosers, audible/visual alarms, remote control, network communications and local activation enable/disable functions.  Our standard MBD comes in a NEMA 1 surface mount enclosure with 24v ac/dc UVR, 120/60 S.T., NO/NC auxilliary signaling contacts and a UL890 listed circuit protection device in two basic designs; one for dc bus < 250v and one for dc bus > 250v.  Naturally all SBS MBDs interface with existing EPO circuits. It can be utilized with any type of battery system.

INTEGRATED DC POWER CART SOLUTIONS

View Power Mobility Presentation

 TESTING & MAINTENANCE EQUIPMENT FOR STATIONARY BATTERIES

SBS offers the tools to properly conduct predictive analysis & preventative maintenance on any battery system so that you may comply with IEEE 450 and/or IEEE 1187. SBS has both conductance & impedance battery diagnostic testing systems that have been developed with our experience gained from our many years of battery manufacturing, testing & service. We produce load banks, infrared imagers, ground fault detectors & various levels of battery monitoring devices. Additionally, we have produced digital & standard hydrometers, watering systems, clean-up kits & other measuring devices to complete the requirements of a thorough testing & maintenance process whether VRLA or flooded, in telecom, data power or utility applications.

 AEROSPACE, DEFENSE, MARINE & AVIATION

Storage Battery Systems, Inc. manufactures custom lead acid & NiCad batteries of all types to match rigid Aerospace & Military specifications including FAA, NATO and USDOD.  The custom division produces batteries for a variety of military & aerospace applications where the environments are extreme & the performance of the battery is truly critical. Complete batteries have been designed for land-based, naval & airborne vehicles. Using our expertise, our engineers will begin by selecting the most appropriate battery chemistry for your application.  From there, we will design a plate structure that best meets your discharge performance criteria, and finally we will devise a case packaging that conforms to your available installation space constraints. Extreme temperature tolerances (-45 F to + 158F) can be engineered into the cells. The result is, quite frankly, a superior battery that will perform to your expectations whether you need to start a brigade of Abrams A-2 tanks or operate a forklift in an extreme environment.  SBS offers a variety of land, marine & aviation battery solutions. SBS truly does provide total DC power solutions. Contact us with your Mil-specification or design parameters.  

RAILWAY, SIGNALING & TRANSPORTATION

Storage Battery Systems offers a wide variety of railway, transportation & signaling batteries, battery system and chargers for engine starting, emergency braking, lighting, HVAC, radio base communications, access control and as prime mover power solutions for the transportation industry.  These include charging & battery systems for mass transit, rolling stock, street traffic control & line-yard signaling. Whether remotely deployed under extreme conditions such as a siding signal-switch or within the communications center as computer power back-up, the SBS solution will deliver the performance and service life required from your most demanding applications.  Contact us for specifying, applications engineering and quotations.

Industry Standard Warranty Terms