Annex 2 - Automatic Battery Chargers
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Statutory Documents - IMO Publications and Documents - Circulars - Radiocommunication and Search and Rescue - COMSAR/Circ.16 - Guidelines on the Configuration of the Reserve Source or Sources of Energy Used to Supply Radio Installations on GMDSS Ships - (4 March 1998) - Annex 2 - Automatic Battery Chargers

Annex 2 - Automatic Battery Chargers

1 INTRODUCTION

Automatic battery chargers should meet the general requirements set out in regulation IV/13 of SOLAS 1974, as amended, and in resolution A.694(17), as applicable and should also comply with the following requirements.

2 GENERAL

2.1 The charger should be capable of recharging the completely discharged accumulator batteries to the minimum required capacity within 10 hours.

2.2 The charger should be capable of keeping the batteries appropriately charged as prescribed by the battery manufacturer for permanent automatic charging.

2.3 The supplied voltage and current should always be within the tolerance limits prescribed by the battery manufacturer, taking into account the environmental temperature of the battery, likely to be experienced in ship. A protection should be provided against over charging or discharging of batteries from a possible fault in the charger.

3 CONTROL AND INDICATORS

3.1 The automatic charger should be provided with a visual indication that it is switched on.

3.2 Provision should be made for an aural alarm and visual indication at the position from which the ship is normally navigated, indicating when the charging voltage or current is outside the limits given by the battery manufacturer for automatic charging conditions. It should not be possible to disable this alarm and indication and it should only be possible to acknowledge and silence the alarm manually. Both the alarm condition and indication should reset automatically when normal charging condition has been restored. Failure of the alarm system should not interrupt the charging or discharging of batteries.

4 READINESS

The automatic charger should be operational within five seconds of switching on or after a power supply interruption.

5 SAFETY PRECAUTIONS

The automatic charger should be so designed and constructed that it is protected against damage resulting from disconnecting the batteries or, with the battery disconnected, short-circuiting the battery connections. If this protection is provided by electronic means it should automatically reset following removal of the open or short-circuit conditions.

Parent topic: COMSAR/Circ.16 - Guidelines on the Configuration of the Reserve Source or Sources of Energy Used to Supply Radio Installations on GMDSS Ships - (4 March 1998)
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