US 12,083,909 B2
Materials handling vehicle charging system comprising a floor-mounted charging plate
Florian Trautner, Munich (DE); Robert Shearrer, Pullach (DE); Stefan Hannemann, Munich (DE); Kevin Gilliland, Coldwater, OH (US); and Adam Wietholter, Marysville, OH (US)
Assigned to Crown Equipment Corporation, New Bremen, OH (US)
Filed by Crown Equipment Corporation, New Bremen, OH (US)
Filed on Nov. 14, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/508,740.
Application 18/508,740 is a division of application No. 17/363,953, filed on Jun. 30, 2021, granted, now 11,897,350.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/047,445, filed on Jul. 2, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2024/0083272 A1, Mar. 14, 2024
Int. Cl. B60L 53/16 (2019.01); B60L 53/36 (2019.01)
CPC B60L 53/16 (2019.02) [B60L 53/36 (2019.02); B60L 2200/44 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A materials handling vehicle charging system comprising a materials handling vehicle and a charging station, wherein:
the materials handling vehicle comprises a materials handling mechanism, a battery, a drive mechanism powered by the battery, a vehicle-side charging contact assembly defining a vehicle-side contact profile, and vehicle-side charging circuitry coupling the vehicle-side charging contact assembly to the battery;
the charging station comprises a floor-mounted charging plate assembly, a battery charger, and floor-side charging circuitry coupling the floor-mounted charging plate assembly to the battery charger;
the floor-mounted charging plate assembly comprises a mounting platform, a multi-directional charging plate mounted to the mounting platform, and a pair of floor-side charging contacts carried by the multi-directional charging plate;
the mounting platform is configured to receive the charging plate such that the charging plate can be mounted to the mounting platform so as to be coplanar with a travel surface of a warehouse floor;
the floor-side charging contacts define a floor-side contact profile that complements the vehicle-side contact profile of the vehicle-side charging contact assembly to enable direct contact transfer of charging current from the floor-side charging contacts to the vehicle-side charging contact assembly; and
the multi-directional charging plate comprises a charging plate footprint that is rotationally symmetric at a plurality of mounting positions about a rotational mounting axis orthogonal to a mounting plane defined by the mounting platform.