The 2004 Data Book -- which describes the BCI Group Number size and cold cranking Amps for practically every auto, truck, farm vehicle, industrial vehicle and lawn tractor -- is now available from Battery Council International (BCI.)

Also included is information on booster cable connections, safe handling procedures, and full dimensional definitions of all BCI Group numbers. The battery chemistry described is generally Lead-acid.

In addition to being available in paper form, the Book is also provided on CD Rom. For the quantity price schedule, contact BCI at 1-312-644-6610, fax 1-312-527-6640 or e-mail: [email protected].

(July 2004) EaglePicher Inc. and Idling Solutions market EaglePicher Horizon batteries to independent truckers. The new high performance battery will allow truckers to run “creature comforts” without idling their trucks for eight to ten hours beforeneeding recharging.

According to the Argonne National Laboratory’s Transportation Research Center, a heavy-duty truck idles about six hours a day, about 1,830 hours per year. By switching a large percentage of that usage to auxiliary devices (battery operated) can save 1,230 gallons of fuel per year and reduce one truck’s annual emissions by 17 tons of CO2, 615 pounds of nitrogen oxides and 10 pounds of particulate.

Currently, the Horizon batteries are made in China, but EaglePicher is building a new manufacturing plant in Grove, Oklahoma, and when the facility is completed, the manufacturing will be moved to the United States.

(July 2003) Exide Technologies Industrial Energy Business Group expands high-powered, tublar-plate flooded technology battery product line for industrial lift trucks. Batteries with tubular plates are the most widely used types of lift truck batteries in the world. In the tubular design, the positive plate consists of rods of antimonial lead alloy surrounded by sleeves of an inert porous material such as polyester. The sleeve is filled with the positive active material and tightly packed around the lead spines. Exide’s President of the Industrial Energy Business Group says “Exide...is the world’s leading producer of this technology.”