ABOUT ANSELL
A Global Leader in PPE — With a Warehouse That Moves Fast
Ansell is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors of personal protective equipment, serving industries from healthcare to heavy manufacturing across more than 55 countries. Their Reno, Nevada distribution facility on North Virginia Street handles a high volume of PPE cases and pallets six days a week — a pace that demands reliable equipment at every link in the chain.
The Reno warehouse runs a fleet of six identical Yale reach trucks, all purchased since the pandemic. Each truck logs between 1,200 and 1,600 machine hours per year — moderate to high utilization for a single-shift operation. Harlan Martin, Ansell’s operations manager and EHS director, keeps a close eye on every piece of equipment in the building.
THE CHALLENGE
Six Hours In, and the Battery Was Done
The Reno facility runs one shift. That should be straightforward for any battery. But Ansell’s lead-acid batteries had a consistent problem: they couldn’t reliably cover a full working day at the pace the operation demands.
Codey, the operator who runs the reach truck assigned the IBG battery, describes what daily life looked like with lead-acid:
“I was actually charging it every two hours because I was getting down to like thirty, forty percent. Even a brand-new battery — I could get maybe four, six hours max. That’s just not good when your job is go, go, go.”
— Codey, Reach Truck Operator, Ansell, Reno NV
The result was a constant cycle of mid-shift interruptions. Codey would stop work to plug in, wait, then resume — losing productive time on a schedule that had no room for it. The pattern repeated every two hours.
For Harlan, the operational picture was equally clear. The problems with the lead-acid batteries extended beyond runtime:
- Batteries required regular watering — an ongoing maintenance task in an operation that moves fast
- Runtime degraded over time, meaning even a maintained battery provided diminishing returns
- When a battery ran low mid-shift, the operator had to stop work to recharge
- Battery condition was difficult to assess — damage accountability gaps made fleet decisions harder
“It sucks when you get to six hours in and you’ve got to go recharge your lift — because the battery’s dead. You don’t have to do that with the lithium.”
— Harlan Martin, Operations Manager & EHS Director, Ansell, Reno NV
THE SOLUTION
One IBG Battery. Installed in a Day. Running Ever Since.
In November 2025, J-Lift Inc. — Ansell’s long-standing forklift dealer in Reno — installed a single IBG Industrial Batteries 36V, 450Ah LFP lithium-ion battery with a 200A charger into one of the Yale reach trucks. No changes to the truck. No new charging room. No retraining.
The battery uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry — the safest and most proven lithium technology for industrial applications — with an advanced battery management system providing real-time telemetry and cell-level protection.
“Ansell has been a customer of ours for years, and we’ve watched them push those reach trucks hard every day. When we put the IBG battery in, I knew the chemistry and the build quality were right for this application. Six months in and no calls — that’s what a good install looks like.”
— Jim Bitz, Principal, J-Lift Inc., Reno NV
The key operational change was simple: instead of stopping every two hours to nurse a dying lead-acid battery back to a workable charge, Codey now plugs in once — briefly, mid-shift — when it is convenient, not when it is urgent.
WHAT THEY NOTICED
The Truck That Nobody Worries About Anymore
Six months after installation, the results are consistent and straightforward. Codey describes how a typical day now works:
“I’m usually at about seventy percent after four hours. I plug it in, it pumps back up to eighty-five, and that lasts me the rest of the day. I’ve never run it out.”
— Codey, Reach Truck Operator, Ansell, Reno NV
What changed is not just the battery — it is the relationship the team has with that truck. Harlan notes that when Codey is off, he reaches for that specific lift without thinking twice:
“If he’s off and I need a lift, I’ll go grab his lift — because it works. I don’t have to worry about running out of juice.”
— Harlan Martin, Operations Manager & EHS Director, Ansell, Reno NV
Other observations from six months of operation:
- No voltage sag detected — the truck performs consistently from morning to end of shift
- No watering, no equalization, no battery maintenance of any kind
- Zero incidents or malfunctions in the first six months
- Codey reports the truck performs exactly as he has it dialed in, with no surprises
THE RESULT
A No-Brainer — Harlan’s Words, Not Ours
Harlan Martin does not soft-pedal his assessments. He has run operations at a Manhattan law firm, a media startup, and a global PPE distribution center. He says the same thing about the IBG battery that he says about any decision where the data is clear:
“If you can get ahead of it, and you can afford it, and you can plan for it — this is not a question. This is a no-brainer.”
— Harlan Martin, Operations Manager & EHS Director, Ansell, Reno NV
The Ansell Reno facility wants to convert the rest of the fleet. The constraint, as Harlan puts it plainly, is budget and timing — not confidence in the technology. In the meantime, one truck in the warehouse never draws concern, never needs watering, and never stops the operator mid-shift. That truck runs on an IBG battery.
“Lead batteries are dinosaurs. We just don’t know it yet. The ugly truth is better than a pretty lie, and the truth is: there’s not a question about what you should be doing.”
— Harlan Martin, Operations Manager & EHS Director, Ansell, Reno NV