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SCISSOR LIFT

21st July 2005, Page 49
21st July 2005
Page 49
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Page 49, 21st July 2005 — SCISSOR LIFT
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An possible alternative to dock levellers or ramps (see next page) is the scissor lift, which tend to be restricted to specialised loading applications, according to Steve Roe, operations director of Saxon Lifts.

Prime examples are loading/unloading items that can't easily be handled by fork-lift and aren't suitable for inclines like dock levellers or rampsroll cages, for instance. With scissor Ifts, you're always operating on the flat, so it can be better from the health and safety perspective," Roe explains. They're also a good solution with double-deck trailers, he adds, as dock levellers and ramps can't usually adapt to the height of an upper trailer deck, and aren't well suited to some unit loads. For example, Saxon systems at car maker Bentley are used to load prestige vehicles into specialist car transporters.

A small scissor lift capable of handling two pallets at a time can cost from as little as £7,000, says Roe, although cycle times are inevitably slowed by the time taken for the lift to raise and lower. Larger lifts can take dozens of pallets or roll cages at one go to mitigate this problem.

Although vehicle tail-lifts present an apparent alternative to smaller scissor lifts, the fact that they are vehicle-bound limits their appeal as far as the warehouse operator is concerned. Scissor lifts can also be fitted with handrails and gates to prevent loads or operators from falling off, Roe points out. expensive option. Even used at ground level for side-access, counterbalanced trucks have their drawbacks. Yard space is invariably at a premium, but there has to be enough space round every vehicle for lift trucks to manoeuvre.Then there's the problem of loading/ unloading outdoors, where rain or frost might damage the goods.

There are also potential health and safety issues about working in a confined space. At an average of £12,000-£20,000 apiece, counterbalanced lift trucks are also among the more expensive options; they also require significantly more operator training than smaller, lighter alternatives.

On the upside, however, counterbalanced trucks are faster than other options and, depending on the racking configuration in the warehouse,can be used inside and out.This allows them to take goods straight from the racking to the delivery vehicle and vice versa without recourse to a second lift truck.

Pallet trucks

The main alternative is the pallet truck.These come in (electric) powered and manual versions: powered models are faster, involve less physical effort by the operator (who can thus be expected to work for longer periods with fewer breaks) and are more controllable on inclined surfaces. Pallet trucks come in pedestrian and stand-on versions. Unpowered pallet trucks cost only a few hundred pounds, while powered models are £3,00045,000. Because they are mastless, however, you have to find a way to raise goods to the load bed.Youll also need to hand the goods over to another lift truck —typically a counterbalanced or reach truck —for storage above ground level in the warehouse.

A good compromise might be the stacker truck; effectively a pallet truck with a mast. These cost around £7,000-£8,000, but as they are electric they are not really suited to outdoor work. Perhaps because of this, they generally have small wheels that can't cope with rough yard surfaces. And, because they use stabiliser legs when raising loads, they're only suitable for use with pallets that don't have bottom boards, and these are more common on the Continent than in the UK.

Distance equation

Tony Rooney is northern region general manager at Caterpillar distributor Finning Materials Handling. He says the choice of forklift truck tends to depend on distance: "With a pedestrian truck, you may be looking at around 10m. Stand-on trucks are generally used for up to 50m and above that, you're probably looking at a counterbalanced truck."

He adds that articulated counterbalanced trucks can also work in narrower warehouse aisles than standard counterbalanced trucks. This could work well where the lift truck isn't fully employed in the warehouse,but he warns that it might not make financial sense otherwise: "Given the additional cost of the truck and the cost of downtime, should you really be using a truck like this in the yard? Probably not."

Rooney also advises taking account of power sources.Warehouse trucks are all electric but counterbalanced trucks might also be diesel or LPG-powered. "If you're using an electric truck outside, there can be ground-clearance issues and problems with damp," he says."And with diesel or gaspowered engines, you have the problem of emissions inside the building.There are options to reduce those emissions —systems that reduce the carbon monoxide, for instance — but again, it's an on-cost." Electric trucks also need charging areas, although in some cases, with powered pallet trucks for example, Rooney reports that these requirements have eased in recent years: "With small pallet trucks, you can now charge via a standard 13A plug. You can even put a charging station on the back of a trailer, so you can carry a compact pallet truck around in the vehicle."

Picking the ideal handling equipment for your individual operation isn't easy, Rooney admits. But some fork-lift and racking suppliers have software to simulate goods flow and calculate the best mix of lift trucks to cater for it.The only stumbling block, he concludes, is that operators must provide precise information before such software can be relied on to produce realistic simulations. •

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