Lift Tables by Brand

What this guide adds

And what it deliberately leaves to the guide next door.

There is already a thorough Lift Tables & Pallet Positioners guide on this site. It covers the engineering decisions: why collapsed height is the first thing to settle, why a rolling load needs roughly half again the capacity of a static one, how capacity derates as the load moves off the platform centre, end loading against side loading, and what ANSI MH29.1 requires. If you have not made those decisions yet, start there.

This guide starts where that one stops. It is about the five brands and their model numbers: how to read a part number, what each brand actually publishes, and where their published specifications are not comparable even when they look it.

To browse the range, see heavy-duty scissor lift tables. For mobile stackers and powered lift equipment, see the Mobile Lift Equipment & Stackers guide.

Reading a model number

The most useful page in this guide, and the one that stops a costly mistake.

Every one of these brands encodes capacity and travel into the part number. Three of them put travel first. One puts capacity first. One uses a metric-derived capacity code. The result is that two part numbers can look structurally identical and describe different machines.

The five conventions

Bishamon's capacity codes are metric

The 22K, 44K and 66K in a Bishamon part number are 2,200, 4,400 and 6,600 lb, which are one, two and three metric tonnes converted. That is why the capacities look like odd numbers next to everyone else's round 2,000 and 4,000. When you are comparing a Bishamon against a Presto, the Bishamon is the slightly larger machine at each step, not the slightly smaller one.

Variant suffixes

The five brands at a glance

Where each one sits, from published catalog data.

Duty cycle, the spec nobody states the same way

The specification that decides whether the lift survives the application.

Capacity tells you whether the lift can raise the load once. Duty cycle tells you whether it can do it all day, every day, for years. It is the most commonly ignored specification in this category and the most common cause of a lift that fails early, because the motor is the part that wears and the motor is sized to a duty assumption.

Intermittent against continuous

Autoquip publishes the clearest description of the distinction. Intermittent duty lifts are for applications with defined cycles and adequate rest between them: manual workstations, maintenance platforms, work where cycle frequency is moderate and predictable. Continuous duty lifts are engineered for sustained high-frequency operation, such as production lines and automated material handling where the lift is part of a throughput process. Above-normal duty is published as typically requiring supplemental design features to protect serviceable life and warranty coverage.

Nearly everything in this catalog is intermittent duty. Lift Products states it outright and specifies an intermittent duty motor. That is the correct and economical choice for a workstation where an operator raises a pallet, works on it, and lowers it. It is the wrong choice for a lift cycling under a conveyor discharge.

Power and voltage

A real constraint, and the brands differ in how easily you can find the answer.

What power is available at the station is often already fixed by the building, which makes voltage an early constraint rather than a late option. Most of these brands publish something; what varies is how easy it is to find and whether the option is priced.

Non-electric options

Where power is genuinely unavailable, or where hydraulic oil near the product is a problem, several formats avoid electricity entirely.

Pneumatic units have a second argument beyond power availability: no hydraulic reservoir means no possibility of an oil leak onto the product. In food, pharmaceutical and clean assembly work that is often the deciding factor rather than the electricity.

Travel and capacity by brand

Where each range actually lands, and what to ask for outside it.

Travel and capacity trade against each other within any one scissor geometry. Pushing both up means a bigger machine, a double scissor, or a different series.

Going higher than a single scissor reaches

Around 60 in. of travel a single scissor stage runs out, and the published routes above that are more numerous than they first appear. Presto's double scissor DXS series reaches 86 in. raised. Autoquip's Compact series is published to 94 in. raised, and its Series 35 Triple High is published with travel from 72 to 180 in. at capacities of 1,500 to 6,000 lb. Lift Products publishes a multi-stage range with 48 to 120 in. of travel, reaching 136 in. raised. Autoquip's double long models are a different thing again, adding capacity and stability rather than height.

Platform size and wide base families

A pallet on a narrow table is a stability problem, not a fit problem.

Published platforms run from 16 by 24 in. at the small end up past 80 in. wide and 180 in. long on the largest double long models. The question is not only whether the load fits but whether the base underneath is wide enough to keep it stable, which is why several brands publish separate wide base families rather than just a bigger top.

Presto publishes an oversized platform as a priced option on some series, which is the cheaper route when the load is bulky but light. Where the load is bulky and heavy, the wide base family is the correct answer and the price difference reflects a genuinely different machine underneath.

Low profile, floor level and the pit question

Three answers to the same problem, at three price points.

If a pallet jack has to get onto the lift, collapsed height is the whole specification. There are three published routes and they are not interchangeable.

Floor level instead of a pit

A pit is the traditional answer to getting a lift flush with the floor, and it is expensive, permanent and a maintenance liability. The zero ground level model is listed here as eliminating the need for ramps, pits or costly floor modifications. On a leased building, or anywhere the layout might change, avoiding the pit is usually the deciding argument regardless of cost.

Pit installation has not gone away as an option. Presto publishes that its floor-height lifts can be configured for use in a pit, which allows the platform to sit flush with the floor when not in use to minimise obstructions. If a genuinely flush installation is what you need, ask about it rather than assuming the floor-level format is the only route.

Positioners: spring or air

Touched on in the category guide, worked through properly here.

A self-levelling pallet positioner keeps the top of a stack at a constant working height as cases are added or removed, without anyone pressing a button. It is a different machine from a lift table with different economics, and the actuation choice is essentially between springs and air.

Turntables, tilt and rotation

Removing the walk around the pallet, and the reach into the bottom of the bin.

Rotation

An operator building or breaking down a pallet walks around it, or reaches across it. Both cost time and both are how people hurt their backs. Rotation fixes it, and there are two published approaches.

• Integrated lift and rotate. Bishamon's TT models put a turntable top on the Alpha lift, published as a 43 in. round or 44 by 44, 44 by 48 and 48 by 48 in. square. Lift Products Roto-Max and Lift-N-Spin do the same on their platforms. One machine, one part number.
• Floor turntables. Presto and Bishamon publish standalone floor turntables to around 4,000 to 4,500 lb. No lift, just rotation, at a much lower price.

Tilt

Tilting brings the contents of a bin or container into the operator's reach zone, so the picking task happens without bending into the bottom of the box. Presto publishes stationary container tilters in the SRT series at 2,000 and 4,000 lb, and a floor level lift-tilt combination. Lift Products publishes mobile tilters. Autoquip lists tilt as a customisation on Series 35 rather than a catalog model.

Portable and mobile lifts

When the lift needs to go to the work.

A mobile scissor lift cart combines a lift table with a wheeled base, so one machine both transports and positions. Published options run from manual hand-pump carts through to battery powered units with powered travel.

Safety features by brand

Which protections are standard, which are priced options, and who publishes what.

The safety features on a scissor lift address two different hazards: something falling or descending onto a person, and something trapping a person between the scissor arms. Different brands solve them differently, and some of these are options rather than standard equipment.

Standards, and who cites what

Coverage is very uneven, and that is worth knowing.

The governing standard for this equipment is ANSI MH29.1, Safety Requirements for Industrial Scissors Lifts, which applies to industrial scissors lifts raised and lowered by hydraulic, pneumatic or mechanical actuation. Our category guide covers what it requires. What this section adds is which brands actually cite it.

Servicing a lift safely

The regulation that applies, cited by number.

A scissor lift stores energy hydraulically and holds a load overhead. Servicing one is exactly the situation the lockout/tagout standard exists for.

The purpose paragraph, at 1910.147(a)(3)(i), requires employers to establish a program and use procedures for affixing lockout or tagout devices to energy isolating devices, and to otherwise disable equipment to prevent unexpected energization, start-up or release of stored energy.

Two things follow for a lift table. First, hydraulic pressure is stored energy, so simply switching the power off is not isolation. Second, the platform itself is a suspended load. The published sequence across these manufacturers runs: remove the load, lower the platform fully, secure the maintenance device, relieve the pressure, disable the controls, disconnect the power.

Note also that 1910.147(a)(2)(ii) extends the standard into normal production operations where an employee has to remove or bypass a guard, or place part of their body into a danger zone. Clearing a jam under a raised platform is exactly that situation.

Common and costly mistakes

Twelve things that go wrong on scissor lift orders.

1. Reading two brands' part numbers the same way. Autoquip, Presto and Blue Giant put travel first. Lift Products puts capacity first. Bishamon uses a metric capacity code. Decode before you compare.
2. Ignoring duty cycle. It is the specification that decides whether the lift lasts. Count cycles per hour at the busiest time, not the average.
3. Assuming intermittent duty will cope with a line. Nearly everything in this catalog is intermittent duty. A lift cycling under a conveyor discharge needs a different conversation.
4. Leaving voltage until the end. Only one brand publishes voltage options as priced part numbers. Raise it at the start, because it can change which brand fits.
5. Specifying travel without checking lowered height. Collapsed height rises with travel more than with capacity. Asking for long travel and a very low collapsed height is what pushes projects toward low profile or floor level formats.
6. Buying an oversized platform instead of a wide base. A bigger top on a standard base derates the capacity. If the load is both bulky and heavy, buy the wide base family.
7. Forgetting the load rolls on. A load rolled onto a platform imposes more than the same load set down on it. The category guide covers the margin to allow.
8. Choosing a spring positioner for a variable product. Spring units are tuned by spring count to a load range. Several products at several weights is an air or electric application.
9. Reading only the maximum capacity on an air positioner. The self-levelling range and the maximum capacity are different numbers. Above the self-levelling range it stops levelling.
10. Treating safety items as standard. Toe guards, skirting and upper limit switches are options on several models. Compare quotes on matched configurations.
11. Ordering without a maintenance prop, or storing it away from the lift. Fix it to the machine.
12. Servicing on hydraulics alone. Hydraulic pressure is stored energy under 1910.147. Lower it, prop it, relieve pressure, disable controls, disconnect power.

Frequently asked questions

The questions that come up most often on lift table quotes.

Quick-reference tables

Everything above, condensed.

Model number decoder

Duty cycle, as published

Lowered height by format

Positioner actuation

Specify-it checklist