Another important reason to perform regular maintenance is to keep yourself safe. A rusty blade or broken gear can cause you a serious injury. Never turn on a power tool if you think it has been damaged.

To help prevent problems from occurring, it’s important to keep your tools in a clean, dry area, away from dust and moisture. Dirt can get trapped in mechanisms and either slowing them down or stopping them altogether. Too much moisture can cause rust, which can easily destroy the power tools. This is especially true if they are battery powered.
Power tool batteries should be checked often for leaks and changed according to factory specifications (unless they are Li-ion or Ni-Cd batteries and maintenance free)
Electrical cords and plugs should also be examined for damage before using. (Unless your power tool is cordless and rechargeable)

Lubricate your power tool as often as needed. This helps maintain clean movement and also can preventing rusting. Oiling keeps your equipment running smoothly and should be performed often. It’s inexpensive to buy and can add years of life to your power tools.
If a problem happens and you’re unsure of how to fix a it, either call the manufacturer or have a professional look at it.

How can you maximize the performance of your cordless power tool battery life?

There are several steps you can take to help you get maximum performance from your power tool’s battery.

• Prevent the Memory Effect – Keep the power tool battery healthy by fully charging and then fully discharging it at least once every two to three weeks. Exceptions to the rule are Li-Ion batteries which do not usually suffer from the memory effect.
• Keep them Clean – It’s a good idea to clean dirty battery contacts with a cotton swab and alcohol. This helps maintain a good connection between the battery and the portable device.
• Exercise the Battery – Do not leave the battery dormant for long periods of time. We recommend using the battery at least once every two to three weeks. If a power tool battery has not been used for a long period of time, perform the new battery break in procedure described above.
• Battery Storage – If you don’t plan on using the battery for a month or more, store it in a clean, dry, cool place away from heat and metal objects.

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9.6V, 10.8V, 12V, 14.4V, 15.6V, 18V, 19.2V, 24V, 28V, 32V, 36V – So many options. How do you go about selecting the correct voltage when buying a cordless power tool? Well, there are a few simple tips to tell you to get to the correct answer. With now a days different power tool battery type and voltage and current, you should  pick the right one.

What other cordless tools would you like to have?

Take a look at what voltages those are available in. Some power tool will only be available in 12 or 14.4 versions. Others will require Li-Ion to get the full line of tools available. With so many cool tools to choose from, plan carefully for future purchases before you commit to a battery voltage and technology.

How much power do you really need?

Higher voltage will  give more power. But how much power is really necessary? If you’re only drilling some pilot holes or driving screws into drywall, then power makes no difference. If you want to drill into concrete, you’ll need more power. More voltage isn’t always needed.

Do you already have other cordless tools?

If you already have some cordless tools, getting something that matches up will be useful. By doing that, you’ll end up with more batteries for each of those tools. That can be a big point and certainly something to consider. You may also think about what other people you know have, in case you borrow a tool or loan one to them. Also you know where to find the right battery for your power tool in case you run out of one.

How often will you be using this tool?

If you’re using the tool not too much, the weight may not matter much. Larger voltages are achieved by using more cells, so the batteries get much heavier as the voltage goes up. The exception is that Nickel Metal Hydride batteries are slightly lighter than Nickel Cadmium, and Lithium Ion is lighter yet. There is also the Amp Hour rating to look at. More Amp Hours means the battery will be heavier as well.

How long will you be using this tool at one time?

Are you going to be doing jobs over your head? If so, light weight is going to be important. Material will be important as well. Drilling through pine and drywall doesn’t take much. Oak and concrete takes a whole lot more. Carefully considering all of the jobs you’ll be doing will help decide what exactly you’ll be needing.

How much do you want to spend on this tool?
Lower voltages are still incredibly useful, yet the cost will be significantly lower. If you want to save on cost, 12 V or 14.4 V may be your best option. 9.6 V may even be the best option in some cases.
Just remember that buying too little could mean problems down the road with too little power. Buying too much may be too heavy and make the tool less usable in that way. Pay attention to the tool weight, battery weight and torque, then balance them so you can get what’s important to you in a tool. Keep in mind that bigger isn’t always better, so buying for the biggest numbers is pretty silly.

source:
toolbarn.com

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Consider the volts & amps in terms of water tap (valve). When a tap (valve) is opened on half way, the water that flows from the pipe produces a certain amount of pressure. When you opened the tap (valve) fully, at that time the water produces more pressure in the pipe. This pressure, or power, is same as like to the volts a battery utilizes. If a laptop is running not more memory consumption programs, less power is needed to discharge energy into a laptop. Though, if a laptop is running a .vob files (i.e.) the dvd film files or other large energy consumption applications, additional power will be needed to discharge the essential amount of energy to run the dvd film.
You may also note that increasing the size of the pipe which is coming to the tap and as a result the tap (valve) will not produce a different result, when you opened the tap you seen the same result of water flow from the tap. This is an illustration of the quantity of resistance in the flow of energy. Calculating this resistance is calculated in terms of amps. In terms of a battery, the sum of resistance is dependent relative on the size of the battery & the sum of energy inside.

A Few Things to think over in Battery Life:

Have in mind that technology continuously changing in the modern era. Your old battery may be ranking in a lower run time than a newer one for the reason that technological advancements that have created longer lasting batteries.
In addition, your laptop battery’s run time depends on the programs you utilize. Some of the programs need more energy to run than the other ones. Few Examples are here: the screen (in particular the brightness setting is high), hard disk drives, CD & DVD drives, & wireless network cards. Unluckily, there is no specific answer to the question, how long accurately will my laptop battery last long? The important factor is how & what you make use of your laptop for.
There is one way for preserving power is to go to your Power Management settings icon in the Control Panel option. You can switch off settings or programs you do not use. In addition think about your brightness of your screen & close and exit your wireless card when you don’t want it.

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There are two ratings on a battery, Voltage (V) and Milliamp-hours (mAh). Voltage is the rate at which energy is drawn from a battery. Milliamp-hours represents the capacity of the battery.

• Here are some questions that might pop-up in your mind regarding your Laptop battery and answers to them:

Q: What if the Milliamp-Hour (mAh) rating is different to my original battery?

A: The milliamp-hour rating represents the capacity of the battery. The capacity is affected by the number of batteries in the battery pack. The capacity is increased by linking the cells in parallel. If the mAh rating is higher than the original battery, then the replacement battery will run for a longer time, if the rating is lower then the replacement battery will run for a shorter time.

Q: Can I use a battery which has a different voltage rating than my original battery?

A: No, the voltage rating has to match that of the original battery or as recommended by the manufacturer.

Q: Can I upgrade my Laptop Battery to a new chemistry?

A: Different battery chemistries cannot be substituted unless the laptop has been pre-configured in the factory to accept more than one type of rechargeable battery.
Refer to your laptop laptop manual to find out which laptop rechargeable battery types your device accepts.

Q: What do the LED lights on the battery do?

A: The little LED lights on the laptop battery is like a fuel gauge of that battery. It tells the relative amount of capacity in the battery.
One LED light would mean that the battery is nearly empty when all the LEDs are lit then it would mean the battery has full capacity.

Q: What is a “SMART” Battery?

A: Smart batteries have internal circuit boards with smart chips which allow them to communicate with the notebook and monitor battery performance, output voltage and temperature. Smart batteries will give the computer much more accurate “fuel gauge” capabilities to determine how much battery running time is left before the next recharge is required.

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Phenomena which are not true memory effect may also occur in other battery types than sintered-plate nickel-cadmium cells.

• Temporary effects

  • Voltage depression due to long-term over-charging

    A common process often ascribed to memory effect is voltage depression. In this case the peak voltage of the battery drops more quickly than normal as it is used, even though the total energy remains almost the same. In modern electronic equipment that monitors the voltage to indicate battery charge, the battery appears to be draining very quickly. To the user it appears the battery is not holding its full charge, which seems similar to memory effect. This is a common problem with high-load devices such as digital cameras.
    Voltage depression is caused by repeated over-charging of a battery, which causes the formation of small crystals of electrolyte on the plates. These can clog the plates, increasing resistance and lowering the voltage of some individual cells in the battery. This causes the battery as a whole to seem to discharge rapidly as those individual cells discharge quickly and the voltage of the battery as a whole suddenly falls. This effect is very common, as consumer trickle chargers typically overcharge.

  • Repair

    The effect can be overcome by subjecting each cell of the battery to one or more deep charge/discharge cycles. This must be done to the individual cells, not a multi-cell battery; in a battery some cells may discharge before others, they are then subjected to a reverse charging current by the remaining cells, causing irreversible damage.

    One way to avoid the dreaded “memory effect” is to fully cycle (fully charge and then fully discharge) your battery at least once every two to three weeks. Batteries can be discharged by unplugging the device’s AC adapter and letting the device run on the battery until it ceases to function. This will ensure the battery remains healthy and maintains its full capacity during its lifespan.

  • Charger cutoff voltage too high

    An incorrect charger setting coupled with a slight voltage depression can cause a battery to be identified as “dead” even when nearly the full capacity remains usable (albeit at a slightly reduced voltage).

  • High temperatures

    High temperatures reduce the charge accepted by the cells and the voltage charged to.

  • Other causes

    • Operation below 0 °C
    • High discharge rates (above 5C) in a battery not specifically designed for such use
    • Inadequate charging time
    • Defective charger

• Permanent loss of capacity

  • Deep discharge

    Some rechargeable batteries can be damaged by repeated deep discharge. Batteries are composed of multiple similar, but not identical, cells. Each cell has its own charge capacity. As the battery as a whole is being deeply discharged, the cell with the smallest capacity may reach zero charge and will “reverse charge” as the other cells continue to force current through it. The resulting loss of capacity is often ascribed to the memory effect.

  • Age and use—normal end-of-life

    All rechargeable batteries have a finite lifespan and will slowly lose storage capacity as they age due to secondary chemical reactions within the battery whether it is used or not. Some cells may fail sooner than others, but the effect is to reduce the voltage of the battery. Lithium-based batteries have one of the longest idle lives of any construction, and examples abound that are nearly 20 years old which exhibit almost their as-new capacity[citation needed]. Unfortunately the number of operational cycles is still quite short and the best examples rarely last more than 500 or so complete charge/discharge cycles. The lifetime of lithium batteries decreases with temperature and state of charge, whether used or not; maximum life of lithium cells not in use is achieved by refrigerating (without freezing) charged to 40%.

Li-Ion batteries do not suffer the memory effect.

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source:
Engadget

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source:

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General Performance Characteristics of Li-ION batteries

source:

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Sanyo Electric Company has announced the completion of their new factory in Hyogo, Japan, which will be the new production facility for litihum-ion rechargeable batteries made for eco-friendly vehicles.
With almost 13-billion yen invested into the 43,000 sq m plant, Sanyo will be able to produce one million cells per month to start and will increase their production scale to further meet the needs of the inevitable demand for eco-friendly vehicles.

This Japanese company has been the leading producer of Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries to different hybrid vehicles made by Volkswagon, Ford and Honda. Currently, Sanyo is with Volkswagon in creating a lithium-ion battery for their new hybrid cars still to come.

Sanyo has been  a leader in manufacturing rechargeable battery technologies and is  hoping to provide 40% of the world’s market in rechargeable automotive batteries by the year 2020.

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The first batteries to be marketed, and the majority of those currently available, utilize LiCo02 as the positive electrode material. Lithium cobalt oxide offers good electrical performance, is easily prepared, has good safety properties, and is relatively insensitive to process variation and moisture. More recently lower cost or higher performance materials, such as LiMn20 4 or lithium nickel cobalt oxide (LiNi l _ xCox0 2), have been introduced, permitting development of cells and batteries with improved performance. The batteries that were first commercialized employed cells with coke negative electrode materials. As improved graphites became available, the industry shifted to graphitic carbons as negative electrode materials as they offer higher specific capacity with improved cycle life and rate capability.
The Li-ion battery market has grown in a decade from an R&D interest to sales of over 400 million units in 1999. Market value at the OEM level was estimated to be $1.86 billion in 2000. 1 By 2005, the market is expected to grow to over 1.1 billion units with value of over $4 billion (¥455 billion),2 while the average unit price is expected to fall 46% from 1999 to 2005.
Market interest in this cost-effective, high performance, and safe technology
has driven spectacular growth, as illustrated in Fig. 35.1. This technology has rapidly become the standard power source in a broad array of markets, and battery performance continues to improve as Li-ion batteries are applied to an increasingly diverse range of applications.

To meet market demand, an array of designs has been developed, including spiral wound cylindrical, wound prismatic and fiat plate prismatic designs in small (0.1 Ah) to large (160 Ah) sizes. Applications now addressed with Li-ion batteries include consumer electronics, such as cell phones, laptop computers, and personal data assistants, as well as military electronics, including radios, mine detectors and thermal weapons sights. Anticipated applications include aircraft, space craft, satellites, and electric or hybrid electric vehicles.

Li-ion Battery Advantages & Disadvantages:

The major advantages and disadvantages of Li-ion batteries, relative to other types of  batteries, are summarized in Table below. The high specific energy ( ~ 150 Wh/kg) and energy density ( ~ 400 Wh/L) of commercial products makes them attractive for weight or volume sensitive applications.
Li-ion batteries offer a low self-discharge rate (2% to 8% per month) long cycle life (greater than 1000 cycles) and a broad temperature range of operation (charge at -20°C to 60°C, discharge at -40°C to 6S°C), enabling their use in a wide variety of applications.
A wide array of sizes and shapes is now available from a variety of manufacturers. Single cells typically operate in the range of 2.5 to 4.2 V, approximately three times that of Ni-Cd or Ni-MH cells, and thus require fewer cells for a battery of a given voltage.
Li-ion batteries can offer high rate capability. Discharge at 5C continuous, or 25C pulse, has been demonstrated.
The combination of these qualities within a cost effective, package has enabled diverse application of the technology.

Source:
Needbattery.com

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