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Design Review of Scissors Lifts Structure for Commercial Aircraft Ground

Support Equipment using Finite Element Analysis

Article  in  Procedia Engineering · December 2012

DOI: 10.1016/j.proeng.2012.07.370

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Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 1696 – 1701

International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors 2012 (IRIS 2012)

Design Review of Scissors Lifts Structure for Commercial Aircraft

Ground Support Equipment using Finite Element Analysis
Helmi Rashida*, Mohd Khairol Anuar Mohd Ariffinb, Mohd Hafiz Mohd Noha, Abdul Halim
Abdullaha, Ahmad Hussein Abdul Hamida, Mohammad Azzeim Mat Jusoha, Akbar Othmanc
a
Center for Computer Aided Design, Engineering & Manufacturing (CADEM), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
b
Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic Port Dickson, 71050 Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Abstract

This research reviews scissors lifts structure manufactured by AEREX, UMW Advantech Sdn. Bhd. that is used on a catering hi-lift using
Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The scissors lifts is one of the major and crucial components of a catering hi-lift which is mainly used to
hoist the van body of the catering hi-lift for aircraft servicing. The catering hi-lift is one of the aircraft ground support equipment that is
commonly used to service commercial airliners. For the design to be approved by the Department of Safety and Health (DOSH) Malaysia
under Hoisting Machine Design according to DS-149 Standard, it must comply with specific engineering design standard. The only
standard applicable is the ANSI Standard MH29.1-2003 “Safety Requirements for Industrial Scissors Lifts” (Revision on ANSI MH29.1-
1994). Focusing on the deflection accordance to the ANSI Standard; calculation regarding the allowable maximum deflection must not
be exceeded. To analyze, manual calculations, solid modeling and computer simulations were involved using state-of-the-art CAE
software. Several linear static FEA analyses were done to get accurate results. The results show that the deflection is still in the
acceptable range. However, some manufacturers find that the allowable maximum deflection is too excessive. Therefore, advice on
critical areas to the application must be given and other safety precautions must be taken to avoid failure during operation.

© 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Centre of
Humanoid Robots and Bio-Sensor (HuRoBs), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Keywords: Computer Aided Engineering (CAE), Computer Aided Design (CAD), Scissors Lifts, Catering Hi-lift, Finite Element Analysis (FEA)

1. Introduction

In today’s commercial airline and airport industry, ground support equipments play a major role in assisting airline
ground crews. During the hectic hours of an airplane arrival, ground crews are then busy with the loading and unloading of
baggage, catering supplies, water and also refueling the aircraft fuel tank in order to be prepared for the next flight
departure. These routine activities must be carefully handled according to standard procedures and protocols of airport
system using specific equipments and vehicles. Apart from this, safety concern is given first priority to the equipments and
vehicles used and every design must follow certain standards for legal certification. In conjunction to this, hi-lift or
commonly known as scissors lifts are basic structures that builds up a ground support vehicle. Mostly mounted on a lorry
chassis, this structure is the heart for every hoisting activity leading to ease of access to the aircraft fuselage.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +603-5543 6201; fax: +603-5543 5160.

E-mail address: helmi_rashid@salam.uitm.edu.my

1877-7058 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2012.07.370
 Helmi Rashid et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 1696 – 1701 1697

Either for loading or unloading of cabin necessities or even for aircraft maintenance, the scissors lifts must be well
designed to support the maximum load and stress in a way it does not fail during operation. Supported by hydraulic and
electrical system, this scissors lifts is a very crucial structure for every company that manufactures or supplies such ground
support equipments or vehicles in the commercial airline and airport industry. Therefore a study and research is put on this
scissors lifts structure leading to the review of the structure design. This study was done in collaboration with one of the
well known companies in Malaysia, UMW Advantech Sdn. Bhd. (formerly known as UMW Engineering Sdn. Bhd.) that
has a big market in the commercial airline and airport industry throughout Malaysia and nationwide.

The design of the scissors lifts should comply with certain standards as a requirement for obtaining a design approval
from the Department of Occupational Safety and Health Malaysia (DOSH) that is the ANSI Standard MH29.1-2003 “Safety
Requirements for Industrial Scissors Lifts” (Revision on ANSI MH29.1-1994) [1, 2]. AEREX (Aircraft Ground Support
Equipment), UMW Advantech Sdn. Bhd. designs, manufacture, supplies and commission aircraft ground support
equipments and vehicles for commercial airliners companies in Malaysia and also throughout the airport all around the
world. Fig. 1(a) shows the catering hi-lift (drop-cab version) that is being designed and manufactured for one of the
commercial airliner company in Malaysia that was used in this research.

(a) (b)
Fig. 1: Drop-cab Version of Catering Hi-lift and Scissors Lifts under Van Body
(Courtesy of UMW Engineering Sdn. Bhd.)

For the catering hi-lift to service the aircraft, the catering hi-lift van body is elevated to an aircraft doorsill by means of a
scissors lift structure mounted onto a lorry chassis as shown in Fig. 1(b) in the shape of an ‘x’ below the van body. Using
hydraulic and electrical control system, the scissors lifts will force the cabin up to an extended height according to what type
of aircraft the airline crews are servicing. Upon lowering down the van body, the scissors lifts will then retract back to its
initial position bringing back down the cabin slowly under controlled condition. In the design stage of manufacturing the
scissors structure, high end state-of-the-art CAD, CAM and CAE software were fully utilized. Welding of every component
to build up the whole scissors lifts was carefully done under detail supervision. Every safety concerns were taken into
consideration without giving any tolerances for any mistakes in that matter. This makes AEREX catering hi-lift to be listed
as one of the favorable ground support vehicles by many commercial airliners companies nationwide.

However in the operation of the scissors lifts application, despite the safety issue, mishandling the scissors lifts had
already caused severe accidents whereby it has been identified that 19% from overall 339 deaths of construction workers
from 1992–1999 were from scissors lifts accidents [3]. While another study concerning safety precautions when operating
scissors lifts showed that majority of falls within the height category of 3–9m are 56–59% from scissors lifts falls [4].
Furthermore, one third of 34 fatal incidents involving 35 deaths from 1986–1990 related to vehicle-mounted elevating and
rotating work platforms were due to failure of equipment or were material or facility related [5]. Therefore, the design of
the scissors lifts must be well designed to avoid equipment failure besides other safety measures such as following OSHA
regulations, wearing personal fall protection equipment, adequate maintenance, inspection before use and training on the
model of lift used.
1698 Helmi Rashid et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 1696 – 1701

2. Simulation

2.1. Free Body Diagram (FBD)

The calculation of the load distributed on the scissors lifts was done considering only one side only because the scissors
lifts is symmetrical in geometry. Fig. 2 shows the Free Body Diagram (FBD) of the load distribution on the scissors lifts.
From the FBD calculations, resultant forces acting on RD and RE are 3,440 kg and 2,175 kg respectively.

R1/2 R2/2
2,805 kg 1,570 kg

. .
Inner Scissors Outer Scissors

D . F
. Main
.C

.
B

E
288 mm

Cylinder
RC
RD RF 2,330 kg / 2 = 1,165 kg RE
150 kg / 2 = 75 kg

5,952 mm

Fig. 2: Free Body Diagram (FBD) of Load Distribution on Scissors Lifts

2.2. Deflection Calculation

The maximum allowable platform edge deflection calculation using the ANSI Standard MH29.1-2003 “Safety
Requirements for Industrial Scissors Lifts” (Revision on ANSI MH29.1-1994) is using Equation (1).

൫݊ሺ‫ ܮ‬൅ ܹሻ൯

‫ܦ‬ൌ
ʹͲͲ (1)

D = Maximum allowable platform edge deflection (in)

n = Number of vertically stacked pantograph leg sections
L = Platform length (in)
W = Platform width (in)

The numbers of vertically stacked pantographs leg sections are the number of scissors located on a single application [7].
For the catering hi-lift used in this research, only one vertically stacked pantograph leg section was identified under the van
body. From Equation (1), the maximum allowable platform edge deflection is calculated as below.

൫݊ሺ‫ ܮ‬൅ ܹሻ൯ ሺͳሺʹ͹ͷǤͷͻͳ ൅ ͻ͸ǤͲ͸͵ሻ

‫ܦ‬ൌ ൌ ൌ ͳǤͺͷͺ݄݅݊ܿ ൎ Ͷ͹ǤʹͲ݉݉
ʹͲͲ ʹͲͲ

2.3. Generating CAD Model

In this research, SolidWorks software was the main CAD solid modelling software used. With its extensive features and
powerful modelling tools, it is fully utilized in the CAD modelling stage. The scissors lifts comprises of 14 major part
components that are being assembled together to form a complete scissors lifts for the catering hi-lift. The outer and inner
scissors are two major parts that make up the whole scissors lifts binding together with bearings and centre pins. When
modelling the parts, every child parts are saved as individual parts whereby when assembling the parts, all modelled child
parts are then retrieved back to be assembled to build the whole scissors lifts as a complete assembly. Fig. 3 shows the
 Helmi Rashid et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 1696 – 1701 1699

CAD model of the scissors lift being generated using SolidWorks software comprising the outer scissors lift (orange colour)
and the inner scissors lift (grey colour).

Fig. 3: CAD Model of the Scissors Lifts Structure

(Courtesy of UMW Engineering Sdn. Bhd.)

The complete CAD assembly model was exported using Parasolid format as for this format enables the data to be
transferred directly between SolidWorks and CAE software, Abaqus/CAE 6.7-1. Data transfer using the right format will
avoid any missing data and eventually ease the meshing of the CAD model when generating the Finite Element Model for
analysis [8].

2.4. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Simulation

To run the FEA simulation using CAE Abaqus/CAE 6.7-1 software, it is necessary to generate the Finite Element Model
of the scissors lifts structure. This is because, since the early 1960s, much progress has been made finite element method of
analysis and today it is viewed as a general procedure of solving discrete problems posed by mathematically defined
statements with multiple of numerical experiments that can be carried out [9, 10]. However, only the inner scissors lifts was
used in this analysis because taking into account that if the inner scissors lift (much smaller scissors lift) can sustain the load
exerted on it, the outer scissors lift will happen to be safe during operation.

The finite element model of the inner scissors lift (Fig. 4) had been meshed using Approximate Global Size of 295 seeds.
The Approximate Global Size of seeds used was decreased to 50 seeds at the last run of the analysis simulation to monitor
the trend of deflection on the scissors lift structure. There were five simulations run by the CAE software upon the scissors
lift finite element model whereby every simulation, the number of Approximate Global Size of seeds used was decreased to
generate a much finer mesh for the finite element model and give more accurate result.

Fig. 4: Finite Element Model of the Inner Scissors Lift

1700 Helmi Rashid et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 1696 – 1701

3. Results and Discussion

Fig. 5(a) shows the maximum deflection that occurs on one side of the inner scissors lift where the van body is attached
to the scissors lift through the FEA simulation using the default size of mesh characteristic (using Approximate Global Size
of 295 seeds). Meanwhile Fig. 5(b) shows the maximum deflection using the finest mesh (using Approximate Global Size
of 50 seeds). These deflections are shown in red color in Fig. 5.

(a) (b)
Fig. 5: Maximum Deflection of Inner Scissors Lift

Graphically from Fig. 5, the deflections from both size of mesh looks the same. This is because of the different
deformation factor scales that were set for each simulation. However the legend shows the possible deflections that may
occur on the structure. Table 1 summarizes the maximum deflections that may occur on the inner scissors lift through five
runs of simulation using different size of mesh.

Table 1: Maximum Deflection of the Inner Scissors Lift

Mesh Approximate Elements Maximum Deflection

Analysis
Global Size of Seed Generated (mm)
1 295 14,917 1.441 x 101
2 200 17,151 1.536 x 101
3 150 19,503 2.542 x 101
4 100 23,863 3.099 x 101
5 50 41,199 4.289 x 101

Meanwhile, from the manual calculation of the allowable maximum platform edge deflection form the ANSI Standard
MH29.1-2003 “Safety Requirements for Industrial Scissors Lifts” (Revision on ANSI MH29.1-1994), the maximum
deflection is 47.20 mm. From the results obtained, it is clear that the maximum deflection obtained from the FEA
simulation using the CAE Abaqus/CAE 6.7-1 software does not exceeds the maximum deflection limit calculated using the
ANSI standard. For the inner scissors lift, the calculated maximum deflection is 47.20 mm whereby from the FEA
simulation is 42.89 mm, just 9.1% below the maximum deflection limit.

The outer scissors lifts was not analyzed because by analyzing the inner scissors lifts alone, it is sufficient enough to
validate whether the outer scissors lifts maximum deflection is below the calculated maximum deflection or not. This is
because the inner scissors lift holds a load of 44% higher than the outer scissors lift, which means that the inner scissors lift
will deflect more than the outer scissors lift. From manufacturer’s feedbacks regarding the maximum deflection that they
obtain from the ANSI standard, the allowable maximum deflection limit is too excessive to follow. Therefore, advice on the
critical area that might cause the scissors lifts to fail during application must be given. If not, it can cause many other
problems over time due to high cycle of usage per hour operation such as platform twist, cylinder side-loading and wear,
center axle pin extrusion and wear of center axle bushings. This is added by the mandatory deflection limitation that does
not allow any tolerance to be given upon the maximum deflection that might occur.
 Helmi Rashid et al. / Procedia Engineering 41 (2012) 1696 – 1701 1701

4. Conclusion

The scissors lifts structure design of the catering hi-lift manufactured by AEREX, UMW Advantech Sdn. Bhd. has been
validated to be complied with the ANSI Standard MH29.1-2003 “Safety Requirements for Industrial Scissors Lifts”
(Revision on ANSI MH29.1-1994), in conjunction for AEREX to apply the approval of hoisting machine design from the
Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), Malaysia. Thus gives AEREX, UMW Advantech Sdn. Bhd. a
bigger market for their catering hi-lift for servicing commercial airliners throughout the world’s airports.

Acknowledgements

Highest gratitude and acknowledgement to UMW Advantech Sdn. Bhd. for providing the CAD data and relevant
documentations, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia and also CADEM Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA
for the facilities and support.

References

[1] Material Handling Industry of America (MHIA), Safety Requirements for Industrial Scissors Lifts. 1994, Charlotte: ANSI.
[2] Policy on Code Compliance - Scissors Lifts 2003, http://www.southworthproducts.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/145d
616e3acdac9b637c374e5a8365fd/misc/tech_cs_policy_code_compliance_scissors_lifts.pdf, Accessed on August 27, 2009.
[3] McCann, M. (2003). Deaths in construction related to personnel lifts, 1992–1999. Journal of Safety Research, 34, 507-514.
[4] Christopher S. Pan, A.H., Michael McCann, Mei-Li Lin, Kevin Fearn, Paul Keane (2007). Aerial lift fall injuries: A surveillance and evaluation
approach for targeting prevention activities. Journal of Safety Research.
[5] Selected occupational fatalities related to vehicle-mounted elevating and rotating work platforms as found in reports of OSHA fatality/catastrophe
investigations. 1991, http://www.osha.gov/FatCat/fatcat.html, Accessed on August 27, 2009.
[6] Riley, W.F., Sturges, L.D and Morris, D.H (1999). Mechanics of Materials, 5th Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., United States of America.
[7] Brochure attachment from Autoquip Corp., 1058 W. Industrial Ave., Printed on 29 August 2009.
[8] Kim, J., Pratt, M.J., Iyer, R.I. and Sriram, R.D. (2008). Standardized Data Exchange of CAD Models with Design Intent. Computer-Aided Design,
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[9] O.C. Zienkiewicz, R.L.T., J.Z. Zhu (2005). The Finite Element Method - Its Basis & Fundamentals. Burlington: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann,
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