Materials handling vehicle charging system comprising a floor-mounted charging plate

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, vehicle-side charging circuitry coupling the vehicle-side charging contact assembly to the battery, a central drive line extending between a leading end and a trailing end of the materials handling vehicle, a steerable drive wheel motively coupled to the drive mechanism, and a pair of load wheels positioned on opposite sides of the central drive line;
• the steerable drive wheel is aligned with the central drive line and defines a drive wheel track width W;
• the pair of load wheels are positioned on opposite sides of the central drive line and define a load wheel gap G between the pair of load wheels that is larger than the drive wheel track width W;
• 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 pair of floor-side charging contacts defining 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 pair of floor-side charging contacts define an inner contact spacing S1 that is larger than the drive wheel track width W, and an outer contact spacing S2 that is larger than the inner contact spacing S1 and smaller than the load wheel gap G to permit passage of the steerable drive wheel between the pair of floor-side charging contacts, followed by passage of the pair of load wheels outside of the pair of floor-side charging contacts, with vehicle movement along the central drive line.