Your Guide to Buying a Scissor Lift Table

Scissor lifts are a fantastic tool, suitable for a number of uses in a range of industries. There are a lot of different variations, though, so we have come up with this buyer’s guide to help you make an informed decision.

What are scissor lift tables?

Scissor-lift tables are platforms (usually flat, but sometimes lipped or enclosed, depending on the use case) that are mounted on crossed-over beams (the ‘scissors’). These beams raise the platform by use of hydraulics – powered either manually or electrically.

What are scissor lift tables used for?

Manufacturing, industrial, distribution and production facilities all use scissor lift tables for lifting heavy items safely. This can range from lifting people, to allow them to reach higher goods, maintain or repair large machinery or stock tall shelving, through to raising heavy goods for loading into trucks.

What should you look out for?

Weight capacity

Many suppliers will be able to provide you with scissor lift tables with maximum load capacities of anywhere from 500kg through to 6000kg – more than enough for most requirements. The higher the capacity the higher the price, so make sure you get the platform that suits your actual and expected lift requirements rather than blowing the budget on excessive capacity that you’ll probably never use.

Platform size

The width and length of your platform are what determines the dimensions of the things you can lift safely. Your load shouldn’t overhang the platform at all.

For particularly oversized items, you can get horizontal double scissor lift tables – they have two sets of scissors adjacent to each other that lift synchronously, keeping the larger platform stable and flat.

Lift height

How high do you need to lift your items? If you have a particularly high-ceilinged warehouse or facility, you’ll need to factor this into your decision making. As with the oversized platforms, you can get vertical double scissor lift tables – they have a pair of scissors, positioned one on top of the other, to give extra height.

Safety

Good quality scissor lift tables from trusted manufacturers will be absolutely packed with safety features. Look out for CE markings and BS EN1570 compliance – that’s the British Standard for safety in lifting tables. Other specific features to look out for are electrical overload protection, automatic stoppage if an obstruction is sensed, pressure relief fail safes and dead man’s switches.

Mobility

If you sometimes need to move your scissor lift platform, then plan ahead and get a model that is mounted on wheels or castors. These pieces of kit can be very heavy, and moving one safely can therefore be very difficult if it is a ‘static’ model.