Airport GSE Battery

Provide the GSE type, system voltage, required capacity, battery compartment dimensions, continuous and peak load, charger details, connector, communication requirements and operating environment. Sending an existing battery datasheet or equipment drawing helps Polinovel assess fit before quotation.

Compatibility must be checked against the vehicle rather than assumed. FL83440 is 83.2V, 440Ah, 1010 × 560 × 290mm and 235kg, with REMA connectors and CAN/RS485 communication; compare these values with your vehicle, charger and battery compartment first.

The published FL83440 technical data lists a 200A charge current and 94.9V charge cut-off voltage. Actual charging time depends on starting SOC, charger profile, temperature and system controls, so the charger should be reviewed as part of the battery integration.

FL83440 specifies discharge from -20°C to 60°C and charging from 0°C to 55°C. Optional heating is described in Polinovel's product information, but projects outside the standard published temperature limits should receive application-specific engineering review.

Yes. Polinovel publishes OEM/ODM capabilities covering battery specifications, housing dimensions and shape according to drawings, connectors, communication functions and selected functional options. The custom configuration should be defined from the vehicle requirements before commercial terms are finalized.

No fixed MOQ or universal prototype lead time is published for this category. Both depend on the confirmed standard or custom configuration and should be stated in the project quotation before a purchase order is issued.

Polinovel's Airport GSE Battery page references UN38.3, CE, IEC 62619 and UL standards, while the FL83440 specification identifies shipment as UN3480, Class 9. Ask for the documents applicable to the ordered configuration and destination market during supplier qualification.

Usually yes. A lead-acid charger uses a taper profile that will not correctly terminate on a LiFePO4 pack, so it will either stop early and leave capacity unused or fail to terminate properly at all. The FL83440 charges at up to 200A to a 94.9V cut-off and communicates over CAN and RS485, so it should be paired with a CC/CV charger and ideally a CAN-aware one. Send us your charger make, model, rated current and whether the profile is field-programmable, and we will confirm before you order whether it can be reprogrammed or needs replacing.

It depends on the platform rather than on the airport. Conveyor belt loaders and lighter tugs are commonly 48V, baggage tractors run anywhere from 48V to 80V, and pushback and aircraft tow tractors are typically 80V to 83.2V, which is the band the FL83440 is built for. Cargo and container loaders can reach 96V. Because manufacturers differ within the same equipment class, always confirm against the vehicle’s existing battery nameplate rather than assuming from the vehicle type.

The FL83440 is rated at over 4,000 cycles at 80% depth of discharge, which in typical multi-shift airport GSE duty corresponds to ten or more years of service. Flooded lead-acid in the same duty generally delivers 1,000 to 1,500 cycles and is replaced every two to three years. Over a ten-year horizon one lithium pack therefore replaces three to four lead-acid packs, and that is before counting the spare packs a lead-acid fleet has to hold in order to cover swaps.

The FL83440 discharges from −20°C to 60°C as standard and charges from 0°C to 55°C. For stations that regularly operate below freezing, the pack can be built with integrated self-heating, where the BMS warms the cells to a safe charging temperature before accepting current and extends safe operation to −40°C. Self-heating is specified at build time and cannot be retrofitted afterwards, so include your station’s minimum ambient temperature in the RFQ rather than raising it later.

Yes, and most fleets convert progressively rather than all at once. The two chemistries must not share a charger unless it is dual-profile or reprogrammable, and swap infrastructure needs to stay in place for the lead-acid units until they are retired. Tell us your planned conversion sequence and we will flag which charging points need to change and at what stage, so the transition does not create a bottleneck at the charging area halfway through.

A standard pack such as the FL83440 has a defined voltage, capacity, enclosure, connector and communication set, and ships against a known specification. A custom GSE battery uses the same cells, the same BMS platform and the same compliance documentation, but the enclosure, capacity, connector, communication protocol or heating option is built to your equipment instead. Because the underlying platform is already proven, custom GSE work is a configuration exercise with a predictable lead time rather than a development programme, and MOQ and timing are agreed against the confirmed configuration.