When Vitec Production Solutions decided to exit the medical market in June 2019, it left a lot of people wondering what they were going to use to power their medical laptop carts. The Anton Bauer battery has been a popular choice for powering mobile medical carts in many facilities across the country. Their hot-swap technology and lightweight batteries were very user-friendly, lending to their popularity. Luckily, Scott- Clark Medical’s patented Flexible Mobile Cart Power Technology is an improved replacement for your Anton Bauer Elora batteries for all of your mobile cart needs.
Flexible Mobile Cart Power Technology, or FMCPT, is a powerful hot-swap battery system that helps maintain the health of the battery on your mobile cart and lasts for twice as long as Anton Bauer batteries. This patented technology is easy to use and charges quickly so that you get through your shifts with minimal interruption and no loss of work.
What is FMCPT Technology?
FMCPT technology is changing the way doctors, nurses, and other healthcare staff provide care for their patients while simultaneously With FMCPT technology on your mobile cart and in your office, you no longer have to worry about searching out a place to “plug in” in time. There are also no surprises about when the battery is running low since there is a battery status indicator light on your cart and on the battery itself.
The batteries can be charged on-cart without removal, or they can be quickly hot-swapped on-the-go for added convenience. Wherever you are in your office or hospital, you can get more power to your cart whenever you need it.
The smart battery charging system (BCS) is an intelligent control that provides interconnectivity between the batteries and the systems they’re connected to. It continually monitors battery health, along with where battery power can be best optimized. In two-or-more battery stations, it automatically chooses the most optimal battery to draw power from and to be available for all power functions.
The UltraLife Battery
The FMCPT system utilizes the UltraLife URS0010 hot-swap battery. This battery uses as unique chemistry which is stable and safer than regular lithium ion batteries, charges much more quickly than other batteries, and lasts through 4,000-5,000 charging cycles.
The URSoo10 is a Lithium Phosphate (LiFePO) battery, also known as a LiFePO4 battery. This battery allows not only for lighter weight and more balanced chemistry, but they also last a lot longer than their counterparts, including the Anton Bauer battery.
Scott-Clark Medical decided to go with the LiFePO4 battery chemistry after reports of dangerous build-ups in the cells of lithium ion batteries which led to fires. According to the Michigan Nurses Association, if a lithium ion battery is stored without a charge it can cause a heating of the electrolytes in the cell which can lead to an explosion as it charges.
Lithium Phosphate (LiFePO) batteries, on the other hand, can be stored without a charge and have a minimal-to-no risk of heating up as they charge. In fact, the FMCPT system monitors the health of the battery as it charges and shuts it down immediately if it notices any issues. This built-in back-up safety feature is essential, especially in doctor’s offices which are not occupied at night when the majority of the battery charging takes place.
Not only can the FMCPT UltraLife batteries be stored without a charge, but they can rapid charge from 0% to 85% safely in about two hours. When they reach 85%, the FMCPT charging system slows them down to further maintain the safety of the battery until it reaches a full charge. The total charging time for an FMCPT UltraLife LiFePO4 battery is 2.5 hours.
Hot-Swap Battery System
If you’re used to the hot-swap batteries employed by the Anton Bauer battery system on your medical laptop cart, then you will enjoy the equally easy-to-swap hot-swap batteries of Scott-Clark Medical’s FMCPT system. The hot-swap battery system employed by Scott-Clark Medical’s FMCPT system are lightweight and come with a handle to easily slide the battery in and out of the slot. The whole battery-swap process takes less than 30 seconds to complete, and it won’t interrupt your work or shut down your computer.
These BCS chargers and battery regulators, can easily be retrofitted onto your existing carts, replacing your Anton Bauer battery system. You will find your batteries to last longer at an average of 10-12 hours and the charge time to be greatly reduced from 4 hours to 2.5 hours.
Battery Life Indicators
In many hospital environments, the battery life on computer carts is remotely monitored, leaving the user with little-to-no control or knowledge over their charging time. The state-of-charge battery life indictor puts the user back in control and improves workflow.
One of the most convenient factors of the Scott-Clark Medical FMCPT technology is the battery life indicators found on your medical workstation on wheels and the battery itself. Both tell you how much life you have left in your battery, and when it is fully charged.
The BCS system gives you a visual state-of-charge indicator on the display of the life left in each battery on the cart. When you have one hour of charge left, the indicator will alert you. When you have a half hour of battery life left, the amber light on your cart will begin to flash. This technology allows you to plan your workflow so that you can stop briefly to switch out your batteries, and you are not surprised by a sudden shutdown of your cart.
Smart Charging Technology
One of the many benefits of our FMCPT technology is the intelligent charging system which automatically chooses and uses the most optimal battery to draw power from to run the devices on your cart. If there are two or more batteries on a cart, the BCS will automatically deplete one before bringing the next one online. It will not draw from both batteries at the same time, leaving you with at least one fully charged battery at all times.
Battery charging can take place either on-cart or off-cart on a charging station. If you are using on-cart charging, you can simply plug your cart into the wall via an electrical outlet. Many smaller doctor’s offices choose this route for space-saving reasons, and because their carts last an entire workday on one charge.
Off-cart charging stations are much more common in large doctor’s offices and 24-hour healthcare facilities. These stations allow nurses and doctors to drop off hot-swap batteries which need to be recharged and pick up fully charged batteries to quickly swap onto their carts when their state-of-charge indicator lets them know their battery life is low.
When you plug a battery into the BCS system, it will first provide a diagnosis of the inserted battery using bright colors to indicate the test results of the battery’s health. If the battery is non-functioning or poorly-functioning, it will alert users immediately for both safety and efficiency purposes.
When two or more batteries are plugged into the BCS, the BCS will begin charging one battery at a time at a rapid charge to bring it to 85% as quickly as possible. Typically, this rapid-charge process takes about two hours. Once the first battery reaches 85%, the system will move on to the next battery, bringing it to 85%. Once all batteries have been rapid charged, the BCS system will begin bringing each battery up to 100%. This ensures that the batteries absorb maximum energy for usage in the time they are charging, so they are ready to use more quickly.
Longer Battery Life and No Charge Memory
The Anton Bauer battery utilized lithium ion technology, which meant that the typical battery life was only 6-8 hours, and the average life cycle of one battery was only 1,000-1,200 cycles. Over time, lithium ion batteries develop a “memory,” which leads them to not charge as efficiently from partial recharges and full discharges.
When a lithium ion battery is placed on the charger, they must have at least a partial charge, or they can run the risk of becoming a fire or explosion hazard. Over time, this partial-charge storage does lead to a “memory” of sorts of your batteries, which means they will eventually charge less efficiently and hold that charge for less amounts of time.
The Scott-Clark FMCPT LiFePO4 battery chemistry allows 4,000-5,000 charges from the half-hour mark and below to full charge without penalty. You will be able to charge your battery from almost- to completely empty status at least 4,000 times without compromising the health and safety of your cart’s batteries. The LiFePO4 battery holds 320-watt hours of energy, meaning it will last 10-12 hours, rapid-charge in two hours, and be ready to go for your shift needs for several years.
Our batteries also come with a 5-year warranty, which means that not only will they last much longer than other battery systems such as the Anton Bauer battery system, but our warranty won’t run out before the batteries do.
Benefits to Patient Care
One of the many benefits of our FMCPT technology is that nurses and doctors can spend more time with their patients and less time wondering where to plug in or power their medical computer cart. With FMCPT, healthcare providers can be confident that their computer will be powered right through a patient visit, and they will be able to access all necessary patient information and records without their system suddenly shutting down.
This also means doctors and nurses can spend more quality time with their patients, which improves the quality of care the patient feels they have received overall. This added time also enhances the healthcare provider’s ability to take more factors into the equation of the patient’s health, and they will make more well-rounded and informed decisions about the patient’s treatment path.
Benefits for Staff
Doctors and nurses will quickly discover that the longer battery life of UltraLife batteries will allow them to continue to work their shifts without interruption for battery charging. The hot-swap battery technology is continued from the Anton Bauer battery system, but these batteries will function more intelligently and ensure that you are getting the most out of your battery life.
You will also notice that because of the longer battery life and swappable technology, there will be less clutter in the hallways of your hospital or office. Carts needing to be plugged into an electrical outlet for several hours will be a thing of the past. Even if you do need to plug your cart in, the rapid-charge phase of the battery only lasts for two hours.
Benefits for Your Bottom Line
Because Scott-Clark Medical’s UltraLife LiFePO4 batteries last 4,000-5,000 charging cycles, this is more than twice the life expectancy of standard lithium ion batteries. While our batteries may cost more in an initial investment than lithium ion batteries, they will last much longer and work more efficiently throughout their life cycle. This means that you will not be replacing batteries as often as you would with lithium ion cart batteries.
We also offer advance replacement warranties for the first three years of the battery’s life. We then offer prorated credits towards battery replacements for the following two years until the batteries reach at least 3,000 cycles. You can rest assured that our batteries will be worth the initial investment, and our warranty program makes that investment a safe one.
Final Thoughts
We understand that finding a replacement battery system for your Anton Bauer battery might be a frustrating, confusing, and expensive search. At Scott-Clark Medical, we have a solution that will be beneficial to your staff, your patients, and your financial bottom line. Our FMCPT technology will provide more efficiency and longevity from your medical cart battery system, and our state-of-charge indicator will make it easier for users to improve and plan their workflow.
Call us today at 1-512-598-5466 or send us a message online at info@scott-clark.com. Let us help you replace your old battery cart system with our FMCPT technology so that you and your staff can have renewed confidence in the life and efficiency of your medical cart batteries.