Australian Forklift Training is a well-known company, which offers practical advice and assistance in acquiring forklift licences.
Australian Forklift Training offers forklift safety tips for industries using forklifts on their sites.
Australian Forklift Training emphasises that the forklift battery chargers must be turned off when not being used, because forklift battery explosion is an important problem associated with electric forklifts.
Every time a forklift battery is charged, it puts off a highly explosive gas (called Hydrogen). Any spark or flame around the charging battery will cause it to explode, with an extremely nasty result.
If a person walks near any of the battery chargers on the site, he will find that 95% of them will be left permanently switched on, even while no forklift is plugged in.
Every time the forklifts are plugged in to or off of the charger, a large spark jumps from one plug to the other. This is all done either directly over the top of the battery or right next to it. Any sparks around the battery can cause them to explode.
Forklift batteries are held in a thick metal carrier. When they explode the top blows off of them with an enormous amount of force and acid usually blows out. People standing near are lucky to avoid injury when ever one explodes.
But the solution is simple. Operators should switch the forklifts and chargers off before connecting or disconnecting them from the chargers. It is an easy fix to a dangerous problem, but one that can save a nasty incident on the site.
A lot of companies are posting signs in the charging area stating that chargers are to be switched off. This is just one step towards preventing an accident in the charging area.