It's important that businesses understand both the benefits and potential drawbacks of wireless charging
Electrification is a process that promises to deliver a range of benefits – including those associated not just with sustainability but also efficiency and productivity – to the materials handling sector.
In accepting the importance (and inevitability) of this transformation, it’s also important to acknowledge its potential drawbacks.
Individual operations making the change should do so carefully. They need to be aware of the challenges associated with electrifying their fleets and understand the best ways to address them.
One such challenge involves battery charging and the need for downtime, charging rooms, and so on. And one solution to this issue is wireless charging. But what exactly is wireless battery charging and how is it possible?
How it works
“Wireless charging is based on inductive power transfer between a floor-mounted transmitter coil and a receiver coil that is usually mounted on the vehicle with no physical connectors used,” explains Aleksey Pantsirev, application marketing manager for battery chargers at Infineon Technologies.
Infineon offers the PSOC Control C3 industrial MCU in TQFP-64 package
“When the vehicle parks over or near the pad, a receiver coil on the vehicle picks up this energy across the air gap and uses it to charge the battery.”
To ensure the efficiency of this process, both the transmitter and receiver are designed to operate at a specific frequency (typically 85–150 kHz). In this way, energy is able transfer smoothly even if the alignment isn't perfect.
The transmitter pad typically includes a power factor correction stage to ensure efficient AC-DC conversion and compliance with grid standards, before driving the high frequency inverter for wireless power transfer.
“The power from the grid is converted into high frequency signals that drive the magnetic field,” says Pantsirev.
“On the vehicle side, the received energy is converted into DC power suitable for battery charging. A control system manages this entire process to keep the transfer stable and efficient.”
Significantly, most types of modern forklift batteries are suitable for automated wireless charging, with lithium-ion (Li-ion) the most common
“Li-ion batteries offer fast charging, high energy density, and long cycle life. This makes them ideal for opportunity charging, which is one of the key advantages of wireless systems,” says Pantsirev.
While, as a semiconductor manufacturer, Infineon doesn’t offer complete wireless charging systems, its products are key components in their transmitters and receivers. They play an important role in terms of system efficiency, safety, and real-time control – all of which are critical in demanding industrial environments.
“On the transmitter side, our high-voltage SiC MOSFETs (CoolSiC family) are widely used in power factor correction (PFC) and high-frequency resonant inverter stages,” says Pantsirev.
“Then on the receiver side, medium-voltage MOSFETs (like the OptiMOS 5 and 6 families) in the 80–250V class, are used in the DC-DC[1] stage that regulates battery charging.”
“We turn idle moments into power moments.”
The benefits of wireless charging
That’s how it works, but why would businesses want to employ wireless charging? What are its benefits compared to traditional charging procedures?
ENRMOVE delivers 3kW inductive power and is purpose-built for opportunity charging
According to Evandro Nishimuni, managing director with ENRX IPT GmbH, the biggest advantage is increased uptime.
“We turn idle moments into power moments,” says Nishimuni. “Wireless charging becomes part of the natural process flow.
“Instead of sending forklifts or automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to a charging room, they top up automatically during short pauses – at packing stations, loading points or conveyors.”
Placing static charging pads at strategic spots makes decentralised opportunity charging possible. As a result, batteries stay topped up, fleets don’t need to be oversized, and battery swaps become a thing of the past.
“This means higher equipment availability, longer battery life, and smoother 24/7 operations,” says Nishimuni.
“It also simplifies fleet management. Vehicles are always ready when needed, maintenance teams spend less time on battery swaps, and operations managers can reduce the number of spare vehicles required to keep things moving.”
Asked about his own organisation’s offerings in this space, Nishimuni highlights ENRMOVE, a system that delivers 3kW inductive power and is purpose-built for opportunity charging.
“The system is modular, compact and maintenance free. It tolerates misalignment, so integration is smooth in busy environments,” Nishimuni continues.
Technically, it transfers energy inductively. Grid AC (50/60 Hz) is converted to ~85 kHz high frequency AC, generating a magnetic field in the primary coil. Energy crosses an air gap (up to 300 mm) to the receiver on the vehicle, where it’s converted to DC.
Thanks to magnetic resonance, charging remains efficient even when positioning isn’t perfect.
“This combination of robust hardware and flexible integration is what makes ENRMOVE suitable for both new vehicles and retrofitted fleets – the same technology can scale from a single AGV line to an entire 24/7 logistics hub,” Nishimuni adds.
Infrastructure requirements
It’s important to note the requirements of wireless charging – in terms of implementation, pre-existing infrastructure, and so on.
The MOOVair Wireless Charging System is suitable for use with everything from small AMRs to large forklifts
“Inductive charging systems are extremely space-efficient and flexible, making them easy to integrate into existing infrastructures,” says Daniel Dörflinger, general manager of Delta's Industrial and Medical Business Unit.
A company with more than a decade’s experience in industrial battery charging, Delta offers a broad portfolio of wireless (inductive and conventional) charging solutions.
The MOOVair Wireless Charging System is one of its latest products.
“The charging pads can be discreetly embedded into workstations or traffic routes, simplifying the expansion of warehouse capacity and the temporary use of additional vehicles, without complex planning or cabling,” says Dörflinger.
On top of this, because the system supports Ethernet-based communication, it integrates smoothly with overarching control and monitoring systems. This ensures that warehouse operations remain scalable, even under changing conditions.
“Inductive charging, therefore, supports not only automation but also the scalability and resilience of modern warehouses,” says Dörflinger.
“In today’s logistics world – where adaptability is crucial – this technology provides a solid foundation for flexibility, without compromising on efficiency or availability.”
MOOVair is designed for growth, with scalable solutions from small autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to large forklifts and tug vehicles. It offers the comprehensive portfolio-power range (f1kW to 30 kW); and is designed to enable organisations to charge their entire fleets, from small AGVs and forklifts up to tow trucks, inductively.
Thanks to Pad-to-Pad-Link (PPL) communication, it ensures interference-free, secure data transfer, even in dusty or busy environments. In this way, it addresses a key challenge of wireless power in tough industrial environments.
Maintaining transmission efficiency
According to Zou Qiang, product manager at ROYPOW Technology, limiting transmission distance and achieving precise alignment between the transmitter and receiver are importnat considerations for all wireless charging systems.
“As a result, longer distances or misalignments can significantly reduce transmission efficiency,” he says.
“Therefore, when building the system, it is important to select a reasonable and flat position for installing the transmitter to ensure that electrical energy is transferred efficiently to the receiver.”
With this fact in mind, ROYPOW Technology has developed a 1kW wireless charging device, which delivers the key advantage of high-efficiency power transmission.
“In this product, we employ synchronous rectification technology to reduce conduction losses on the receiver side and implement a novel modulation strategy that enables switching the MOSFETs with zero voltage, effectively minimising switching losses on the transmitter,” Qiang explains.
The product is ideal for use in large cold storage facilities; spaces in which conventional conductive systems face significant challenges.
As Qiang notes, there are two main difficulties to overcome in such settings. Firstly, in such a low-temperature environment, it is difficult for operators to manually plug and unplug the charging gun.
And secondly, the humid air increases the risk of short circuits in conductive charging systems.
By adopting ROYPOW's wireless charging solution, both issues can be effectively resolved.
Alternatives to wireless charging
Of course, wireless forklift charging is not without its drawbacks.
“The main challenges range from operator compliance to speed of charge, infrastructure requirements, energy efficiency goals, and safety struggles,” says TJ Shelters, SVP motive at Concentric.
Concentric offers the PowerHIVE system as an effective alternative to wireless charging
“For high power usage material handling equipment, the risks and challenges simply outweigh the benefits.”
In light of this, Concentric offers the PowerHIVE system as an effective alternative to wireless charging.
Shelters uses the analogy of the hand drill to explain the attractions of the system. He says that much like this household item, which generally includes a battery that can be changed simply and without delaying the job at hand, the PowerHIVE simplifies battery swaps.
“It delivers power on demand with 2-minute battery swaps, eliminating peak demand charges and providing continuous uptime,” he says.
Facilitating automated battery changes with no need for software integration, it can be deployed in just three days.
On top of this, it features multi-voltage compatibility across manufacturers, standardised battery sizes, and a push-button operation that removes operators from power management through a central ‘Hive’ system.
But according to Shelters, what makes the PowerHIVE system unique is separation of the power source from the counterweight.
“Unlike wireless charging that retrofits existing batteries to specific chassis, our system lets you buy lithium batteries for their full lifespan regardless of fleet changes, giving you flexibility to change equipment while keeping your power investment,” says Shelters.
As an example, a 36V battery in the PowerHIVE system will power a customer's entire 36V fleet, regardless of equipment type or manufacturer.
According to Shelters, it shows that “the future of forklift power isn't about making batteries wireless, it's about making them instantly available when and where operators need them”.
“The future of forklift power isn't about making batteries wireless, it's about making them instantly available when and where operators need them.”
Continuous operation without compromise
The final word on wireless charging goes to Prof. Mor Peretz, CEO and co-founder of CaPow. For him, technology of this type is all about maximising uptime and battery life, and in the process, being able to do things like reclaim valuable floor space and reduce fleet size.
The Genesis system from CaPow is suitable for both AMRs and AGVs
“We’ve developed what we call Power in Motion,” says Peretz.” Unlike traditional charging systems that require robots to stop and dock, our solution uses capacitive wireless power transfer to deliver energy dynamically while they move.”
The solution deploys ultra-thin, modular electrodes – which can be surface-mounted panels or even conductive foil – strategically along high-traffic routes.
Then, when a mobile robot passes overhead, its receiver locks onto the power channel within milliseconds, transferring energy safely and without contact.
“No precise alignment, no interruptions, just continuous power built directly into the workflow,” says Peretz.
Known as Genesis, the system is suitable for both AMRs and AGVs. Capable of 500W energy transfer while the vehicles are moving at a speed of up to 5m/s, it also offers a 50% misalignment tolerance, as well as adaptive tuning for reliable power delivery in real industrial conditions and modular antennas for durability and scalability.
Capow Technology offers Genesis along with it (Genesis Energy Management System (GEMS) for predictive energy management and Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS).
“Together, Genesis and GEMS eliminate charging downtime and turn energy into a managed, intelligent service,” says Peretz.
Concluding, Peretz says CaPow is “empowering automation to run 24/7 without compromise.”
Like the various other suppliers mentioned here, the company is ensuring the materials handling sector’s journey to electrification is as smooth and effective as possible.
Discover the wireless charging solutions and systems our contributors have developed in this dedicated Virtual Expo Showroom.
For this report we interviewed the following industry specialists: