Hydraulic access platform makes flexible sense in warehouses

IT ISN'T only goods and materials that have to be lifted to heights in the workplace. Workmen required to undertake installations and maintenance operations also need to be lifted in some manner, as do staff undertaking stocktaking on racks well above ground level. Conventional use of ladders or traditional forklifts is often unsuitable and, in fact, unsafe. The section manager of the services division of a printing company decided to look into safety methods, and found that a hydraulic aerial access platform developed by JLG Industries of Gauteng provided the most suitable answer. "We use the platform for all types of elevated work such as installations and maintenance as well as stockpiling magazines and other printed jobs on shelves in our warehouse," he told JLG's Keith Freel. "It has proved to be a very useful tool in all these areas. It has increased the safety of working at height, and eliminates the cost of having to hire scaffolding, which in the past took considerable time to erect. Our artisans then had to wear safety harnesses attached to the structure which severely limited their working arc." With the use of the platform staff members are lifted on a secure (with all-round railings) wide base to the area they wish to reach. Controls are situated on the platform itself, which eliminate the possibility of operator fatigue. JLG's electric scissor lifts, another of their major products, are more commonly used in warehousing and storage applications. Users are able to choose between 13 different smooth-terrain models, depending on their application and the environment in which they are used. The warehouse manager of a company manufacturing catalytic converters for motor vehicles, which are canned into exhaust systems locally and exported, has expressed satisfaction at the model which his company uses to undertake stock counts of material on shelves five metres above ground level. "This affords us quick access to all shelf levels and leads to a reduction in stocktaking time," he says. "We previously made use of cages that were lifted by forklift to perform the task, but this was not only a slow process but also unsafe." Significant features on the scissor lifts are their manoeuvrability in narrow aisle applications and solid non-marking tyres for operation on floors susceptible to tyre marks.