The electrical equipment of the machine.<\/strong> The general machinery electrical standard governs the control circuits, protective bonding and isolation arrangements of the station as part of a machine.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nBecause four different layers apply, it is worth writing down which party owns which filing<\/strong> before the project starts. In this category that single conversation prevents the most common late-stage dispute.<\/p>\nThermal and environmental reality<\/h2>\n Charging infrastructure lives in the least pleasant part of the building, and the specification should follow.<\/p>\n
\nAmbient is high and variable.<\/strong> Industrial equipment of this class commonly works across roughly 0 to 55 \u00b0C with intelligent derating above about 50 \u00b0C, and the derating curve is the number that matters.<\/li>\nForced cooling is normal above a certain power.<\/strong> That means airflow, filters and dust, and a maintenance interval that has to be documented or reliability suffers quietly.<\/li>\nIngress protection varies by site.<\/strong> Warehouse floors are dustier than the specification usually assumes, and outdoor or cold-chain sites need genuinely sealed units.<\/li>\nServiceability is a design requirement.<\/strong> A station that cannot be serviced without taking down a charging position is a station that will be left broken.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nIn a facility running 24 hours, the cost of an unavailable charging position is usually far higher than the cost of the station, which is why maintainability belongs in the requirement list.<\/p>\n
What industrial buyers verify before they commit<\/h2>\n This is the section worth reading twice if you are a supplier new to this class of product, because capability and credibility are two different gates.<\/p>\n
Buyers of kilowatt-class charging infrastructure are usually integrators with their own customer obligations. They are not primarily buying power electronics; they are buying the ability to promise a customer that a fleet will keep running. That changes what they look for.<\/p>\n
\nCertification for the actual product class.<\/strong> Not a certificate for an adapter that shares a DNA, but evidence against the converter safety standard for this kind of equipment, for the model they are buying.<\/li>\nThermal validation at real ambient.<\/strong> A test report showing sustained output at the temperature of the actual installation, not a bench figure at 25 \u00b0C.<\/li>\nReliability data they can use.<\/strong> Cycle-count expectations for the contact interface, component-level reliability information, and the assumptions behind both.<\/li>\nManufacturing process evidence.<\/strong> How units are tested before shipment, what the burn-in profile is, and what happens to a unit that fails \u2014 a supplier who can show a 100% test regime answers a question that a datasheet cannot.<\/li>\nReference installations.<\/strong> This is the hardest gate and the honest bottleneck: a buyer with a live facility will ask who else is running this product, and no amount of specification substitutes for an answer.<\/li>\nWritten change control.<\/strong> Because a substitution inside a converter can invalidate the buyer’s own system certification, not just a specification.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe practical consequence for a supplier entering this class: the first project is a credibility project, not a revenue project.<\/strong> It is won by being specific about which evidence exists and which does not, agreeing a qualification plan in writing, and delivering the first installation as if the whole relationship depends on it \u2014 because it does. Suppliers who claim a class they cannot evidence rarely get the second conversation, and they often do not get the first project finished either.<\/p>\nOur own position is deliberately plain: we build external supplies as a standard range and engineer higher-power charging stages per project, including the auxiliary and control rails inside a station. We would rather agree a qualification plan than overstate a reference list, and we would rather tell you which evidence we have than be found out later.<\/p>\n
What to put in the RFQ<\/h2>\n These lines are what a charging-station supplier needs in order to quote something that can actually be built and certified.<\/p>\n
\nThe robot’s energy requirement<\/strong> \u2014 pack voltage, capacity, and the charge window the duty cycle allows.<\/li>\nThe charging strategy<\/strong> \u2014 full charge, opportunity charging, or both \u2014 because it sets the cycle count the hardware must survive.<\/li>\nCoupling method<\/strong> \u2014 contact block, inductive pad or connector \u2014 and the alignment tolerance it has to accept.<\/li>\nThe auxiliary rail<\/strong> \u2014 voltage, current and what it powers.<\/li>\nThe interface<\/strong> \u2014 fieldbus to the robot and uplink to the fleet system, with protocol expectations.<\/li>\nEnvironment<\/strong> \u2014 ambient range, ingress protection and the dust and moisture reality of the site.<\/li>\nCertification ownership<\/strong> \u2014 which party files which layer, in writing.<\/li>\nServiceability<\/strong> \u2014 what has to be replaceable in the field and in what time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nOur sample evaluation checklist<\/a> and the OEM agreement guide<\/a> cover how to hold these points through production.<\/p>\nAGV charging station OEM specification table<\/h2>\n
\n\n\nParameter<\/th>\n Typical for AGV and AMR charging stations<\/th>\n Note<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n\nOutput voltage<\/td>\n 24V or 48V typical; up to 96V on heavy platforms<\/td>\n Set by the pack, not chosen for convenience<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nOutput current<\/td>\n 10A to 50A in the volume class; 50A to 200A heavy<\/td>\n Sets charge time against the duty cycle<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nPower class<\/td>\n Roughly 500W to 2.5kW mainstream; 3kW to 20kW heavy<\/td>\n Well above an external power supply class<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nInput<\/td>\n Single-phase on smaller units; three-phase on large ones<\/td>\n Power factor correction is a specification line<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nAuxiliary rail<\/td>\n 12V or 24V at around 3 to 5A for the station’s own control<\/td>\n Must hold regulation through main-output transients<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nCharging strategy<\/td>\n Opportunity charging dominant; many short cycles per day<\/td>\n Reliability is set by cycle count, not hours<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nCoupling<\/td>\n Contact blocks rated 100A to 200A, or an inductive pad<\/td>\n Contacts must not be live before the handshake<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nAlignment tolerance<\/td>\n Stated in millimetres in three axes, against real docking accuracy<\/td>\n Decides uptime more than the electrical spec does<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nCommunication<\/td>\n CAN or RS485 to the robot; Ethernet, Wi-Fi or cellular uplink<\/td>\n Hardest item to change after commissioning<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \nEnvironment<\/td>\n Around 0 to 55 \u00b0C with derating above 50 \u00b0C; IP54 to IP67<\/td>\n Forced cooling brings filters and a service interval<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nBurn-in on the aging rack \u2014 where marginal units are found before they ship.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFinished-goods warehouse \u2014 charging infrastructure programmes ship in batches matched to deployment waves.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFrequently asked questions<\/h2>\nWhat power does an AGV charging station need?<\/h3>\n It depends on the class: small service robots charge at 24V and roughly 5 to 20A, warehouse AMRs and light AGVs at 24V or 48V and 20 to 50A, and heavy AGVs and forklifts from 50A upward.<\/strong> That puts mainstream stations in the several-hundred-watt to several-kilowatt range, which is a different product class from an external adapter.<\/p>\nWhy is the power so much higher than a robot’s average draw?<\/h3>\n Because charging power is set by the charge window, not by average consumption.<\/strong> A robot that works two shifts cannot spend half a day charging, and opportunity charging compresses the same energy into short, frequent windows \u2014 which raises current rather than reducing it.<\/p>\nIs an AGV charging station just a big power supply?<\/h3>\n No \u2014 it contains a power supply, but it adds automatic coupling, communication with the robot, and an auxiliary rail for its own control electronics.<\/strong> The conversion stage is one link in the chain, and the stages around it are where reliability is usually won or lost.<\/p>\nWhat is the auxiliary power output for?<\/h3>\n It runs the station’s own controller, contactor drive, safety monitoring, status lights and communication module \u2014 typically 12V or 24V at 3 to 5A.<\/strong> It is small enough to be overlooked and important enough that a brown-out takes the station’s logic with it, so it must hold regulation through main-output transients.<\/p>\nWhy does opportunity charging stress the hardware more?<\/h3>\n Because it multiplies cycle count.<\/strong> Instead of one long daily charge, the station runs many short ones, and every start-up brings inrush, contactor wear and thermal cycling. Component life in this application is set by cycles, so ask for cycle-count expectations alongside operating hours.<\/p>\nContact or inductive charging?<\/h3>\n Contact blocks are simpler and more efficient and are rated for very high current; inductive pads remove exposed contacts and tolerate large misalignment at the cost of coupling losses.<\/strong> Ask about efficiency at your real gap and offset, and about the protection rating of both halves.<\/p>\nWhich standards apply to a charging station?<\/h3>\n Several layers at once:<\/strong> the safety standard for power electronic converter systems, the machine-specific safety standard for driverless industrial trucks and mobile robots, the safety standard for industrial lithium batteries, and the general machinery electrical standard for the station’s control circuits. Agree in writing which party files which layer.<\/p>\nWhat do industrial buyers ask for before committing?<\/h3>\n Certification for the actual product class, thermal validation at real ambient, usable reliability data including cycle counts, evidence of the manufacturing test regime, reference installations, and written change control.<\/strong> Reference installations are the hardest gate, which is why the first project in this class is a credibility project rather than a revenue one.<\/p>\nWhat MOQ and lead time apply for charging station power stages?<\/h3>\n Our standard external supplies run from 200 pcs per model at Paiyi Power, with samples in about a week and first production 5\u20136 weeks after approval.<\/strong> Higher-power charging stages, including the auxiliary and control rails inside a station, are engineered per project with an agreed qualification and certification plan rather than priced from a catalogue. We state plainly which evidence we hold and which we do not.<\/p>\n