Industrial lifts have been a traditional tool commonly in warehouses for over a century. The scissor lift, however, is a lift with a very important difference. Sometimes known as a table lift, the scissor lift is an industrial lift that has been modified for retail and wholesale settings. In simple terms, the scissor lift is a platform with wheels that acts like a forklift. In a non-industrial setting, the scissor lift is useful for completing tasks which require both speed and mobility while transporting people and material above ground level.
The scissor lift is unique in that it doesn’t use a straight support to raise workers into the air. Rather, the scissor lift platform raises when the linked, folding supports underneath it draw together, stretching it upward.
When extended, the scissor lift reaches anywhere from 21 to 62 feet (6.4 to 18.8 meters) above ground, depending on its size and purpose.
The market for scissor lifts has matured over the years mainly thanks to increasing health and safety legislation, coupled with growing awareness of the productivity benefits of scissor lifts over ladders, ladder platforms and other traditional access methods.
Scissor lifts are commonplace in warehouse and logistics operations; particularly for maintenance applications.
Over in the UK companies such as Snorkel are offering a full range of battery powered scissor lifts ranging from 3m (10ft) platform heights to 9.8m (32ft). Larger, rough terrain machines are used extensively for constructing warehouses and maintaining their exteriors.
A recent innovation has been compact, rough terrain scissors that have a bienergy power pack. These versatile machines can work on the diesel engine when outside, then switch to the electric motor to work indoors.
Why are scissor lifts popular (what are their benefits)?
Commenting on the growing popularity of scissor lifts, Mark Yarnold, General Manager of Snorkel UK, said: "Fundamentally, scissor lifts provide operator safety and productivity benefits over traditional methods of working at height such as using ladders, ladder platforms or scaffold/podiums."
Yarnold said that that independent time and motion studies have found that scissor lifts are more cost effective than these other access methods. This, he explained, is due to increased efficiency from being able to drive the platform even when elevated, compared to climbing down a ladder and manually repositioning it. Other factors include the speed of elevation and descent and the fact that sick days due to worker injuries caused by carrying or using ladders and podiums are significantly reduced.
According to Yarnold, use of electric scissor lifts in warehousing and logistics has been growing for more than 20 years.
However the Working at Height legislation implemented by the EU in 2005 really accelerated their adoption. For example, it has never been safe to have a man on a pallet lifted by a fork lift truck. But after 2005 it also became illegal.
Yarnold believes that the evolution of the scissor lift has just begun and future holds some exciting developments in store.
He said: "We expect to see more hybrid drive systems on larger scissor lifts, to help them meet increasingly stringent emissions legislation and allow the machines to work both indoors and out. Other initiatives will be around taking cost out or further improving operator safety."
With the continued development of scissor lifts, Yarnold’s company is keen to maintain its competitive edge.
Snorkel recently overhauled its entire range of electric scissor lifts, with improvements including a common control system that has excellent fault-finding capabilities to help make life easy for service engineers. The company has also launched the first in a new series of high capacity, rough terrain scissor lifts; it also commenced production of a third model in its compact rough terrain series which is ideal for working in between buildings on industrial estates.
