Scissor lifts are also known as platform lifts, lifting platforms or simply, lift tables and there are many stock ranges of scissor lift available, but because of the wide range of applications that they find themselves used in, are usually custom designed and built for the job. They are generally used to lift heavy loads over a relatively short vertical distance and therefore readily lend themselves to positioning work for ergonomic purposes in factories, levelling out the variation in load height for loading vehicles in busy warehouse environments and allowing vehicular access to mezzanines.
There is a recent example where a scissor lift has been supplied to a new factory with a 13 metre long 20 tonne capacity vehicle loading lift unit, as the factory has no conventional loading bays. When the installation is complete the lift will be used to load pallets and roll-cages into and from most of the larger road vehicles used in Europe. On the front of the double horizontal type scissor lift is a small 2m x 300mm loading flap / bridge plate to allow easy load transfer between the lift table and vehicle bed.
Apart from the very large, scissor lifts can be made small and strong which makes them ideal for building into mobile devices where their precision power can be used to great effect. A multi-axis lift table for maintaining high speed trains has recently been designed and built. The lift runs along the length of the works pit/ trench. Mounted on the lift mechanism is a side shift which in turn has a turn table fitted above it. This allows motors and gear boxes weighing 5 - 7 tonnes to be easily and accurately manoeuvred into position. This is especially useful when replacing units, as it can be almost impossible to line up the bolt holes.
A similar, yet smaller unit has just been supplied to an off-shore exploration company to replace ventilation fans on the North Sea rigs. This newer unit had a handling table fitted to the lifting mechanism that was free running on ball units to give total mobility in any axis. This unit can lift up to 1 tonne up to 2.6mm off the floor.
Not just small and strong, they can be big and strong as well as in the case of an incredible machine that is used for the maintenance and repair of bridges that cross railway tracks. To accomplish this, a pair of 30 tonne lift tables, each 4,500mm x 2,400mm with 1,500mm of stroke were supplied which were mounted on turntables and then onto a flat bed rail car and can lift bridges spanning the rail tracks.
There are no typical specifications for scissor lifts as they can be designed to suit almost every application and if the end-use dictates that they be built in galvanised or stainless steel for use in corrosive conditions or where absolute cleanliness is required such as in hospitals and the food industry. Resistance to saltwater corrosion is important in the oil and related marine industries, and not just commercial applications either as a stainless steel lifting and tilting scissor lift with a special carriage for holding a torpedo was recently commissioned! This was for the use a one of the NATO member countries Navy's in the testing and launching of torpedoes.
