The development of a new battery range for telecommunications applications

The continued development of telecommunications power supplies has increased the need for new battery configurations in order to maximise energy density, optimise space utilisation, and provide for ease of installation and maintenance. Front-access terminals are now one of the key features in modern batteries used for power supply racks in telecommunications. In addition, development in the area of new battery/cell configurations will give further improvements for new battery types specifically designed for these applications. In this respect FIAMM has recently developed a new range of sealed lead/acid telecommunications batteries with a different approach, mostly focused on application issues rather than by simply adapting established design and manufacturing criteria. This range uses absorptive glass mat separators and state-of-the-art electrochemical designs and this has led to new cell configurations which have a strong impact on key issues in one of the most critical areas of the operation of the batteries; thermal characteristics and thermal management. This paper will report an ongoing investigation regarding the thermal characteristics of standard and innovative cell configurations of battery monoblocs for service in telecommunications standby power supplies. The results of this investigation will serve to validate the effectiveness of these new cell configurations in terms of their thermal characteristics and supply further information to optimise their operation in the field.