Types of Scissor Lifts and Cherry Pickers

Scissor lifts and cherry pickers are indispensable aids to warehouse operations the world over, but there are many types of each that are suited to specific tasks so let’s take a look at the various options beginning with scissor lifts.

Types of Scissor Lifts

Scissor lifts help create a safe and efficient working area for those working at height in a warehouse environment. The likes of electricians and cleaners can reach high wires and shelves and structural engineers can be more thorough with their inspections thanks to scissor lifts.

Diesel and Electrical Scissor Lifts

These account for the majority of scissor lifts. Diesel outdoors (fumes can be bad indoors) and electrical lifts indoors.

Hydraulic Scissor Lifts

Hydraulic scissor lifts utilise hand powered or engine powered pressurized hydraulics to create the force to lift heavy loads and raise or lower the working platform. It is the change in the pressure of the hydraulic oil that does the trick. In older models the oil was affected by weather conditions meaning that such lifts functioned faster in warmer weather as the oil circulated better, being less viscous. In winter they often become sluggish. In newer models this issue has been addressed.

Pneumatic Scissor Lifts

Pneumatic scissor lifts use air pressure as the lifting mechanism. These lifts are environmentally friendly and often do not even require electricity to function. They suck in and compress air and can be used in most working environments indoors and out. As it is such a simple design a pneumatic lift is also very low maintenance.

Types of Cherry Pickers

Cherry pickers are indeed still used to pick cherries, but are now best known for their ability to help workers reach high places with greater safety and efficiency. They are also known as MEWPs (Mobile Elevating Work Platforms) and are used in construction, warehousing, mining and many other industries.

Boom lifts

Boom lifts can be found in engine powered form for rougher terrain work or electric-powered form for indoor (warehousing) use. They offer great height potential (up to 47 metres) and a horizontal outreach of up to 24 metres – so are extremely flexible. In addition there is the choice of telescopic booms for reaching great height, articulating booms for obstructed areas, requiring greater manoeuvrability, towable booms that only need a trailer hitch to be transported quickly to wherever the work is and finally compact crawler booms (spider lifts) for the most awkward spaces.

Mast lifts, vertical personnel lifts and stock pickers

These fall into the category of vertical boom lifts that extend upwards and downwards along a vertical boom. Such pieces of equipment are often used in warehouses as they have strong lifting capacities of around 200kg and enable heights of 14 metres to be reached, which is more than enough for most warehouse environments. Add to this the fact that there are a choice of options for horizontal outreach and you have nifty tools for allowing workers to move swiftly, efficiently and safely with both hands free to work with. Manoeuvrability is outstanding and these lifts can reach tricky areas.