Definition of a High Cycle Scissors Lifts

James Johnston, PE
Engineering Manager, Autoquip Corporation

PURPOSE
The purpose of this white paper is to adequately explain the definition of what constitutes a high
cycle (HICY) scissors lift. Also explain how to identify applications that may necessitate this
design to safely accommodate the requirements for repeated cycles at a high frequency and/or
high speed.

BACKGROUND
Though not uncommon for many industrial scissors lift applications, there is not much
communication by manufacturers and/or understood by the user community about the
detrimental effects that constant cycling can impose upon the average scissors lift. This lack of
information or working knowledge concerning cycle times and frequency is likely due to the less-
than-straightforward reasoning for specifying a HICY lift.

SOME IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS

Effort must be made up front to lay the appropriate groundwork to ensure that the terminology
used throughout this paper is well understood. So, here are the definitions needed to accurately
understand and apply the principles and discussions contained within this white paper.

A pair of metal brackets that capture a pin at a pivot point for a component of the
Clevis lift. This would include the legs and cylinder(s).

Continuous Duty motor A motor that is rated to run continuously.

The process (or time required) of raising and lowering a lift through its normal travel
Cycle is considered (1) cycle.

The period of time between cycles of a lift, usually measured in cycles per hour (or
Frequency day or year)

Terminology used loosely in the industry. Typically refers to a manufacturer’s larger

Heavy Duty capacity lifts. The capacities generally start at a minimum of 8,000lbs or higher.

Definition of a lift that exceeds the performance of the manufacturer’s “standard”

High Cycle lifts in frequency or speed of cycles, or shear number of allowable cycles.

A motor that is rated to run for a specific amount of time before requiring a period of
Intermittent Duty motor idle cool down time.

A movement of a lift (up or down) that is only a partial change in height, not a full
Jog cycle in terms of travel, but still considered a cycle due to motor starts, etc.

Life-time / Non-greasable / Bushings that do not require grease or periodic maintenance. They can be metal or
composite. Characteristically lined or impregnated with ‘PTFE’
Self-lubricating bushing (Polytetrafluoroethylene) as the lubricant. This is commonly known as Teflon ®

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Property of Autoquip Corp. and shall not be reproduced without written consent by Autoquip
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HEAVY DUTY OR HIGH CYCLE
To start, a differentiation should be made between “Heavy Duty” and HICY. Heavy Duty implies
a strength or toughness that can be misinterpreted as a design that will handle more duty than a
standard lift. Generally, this terminology when applied to scissors lifts merely infers a higher
load capacity than a standard lift.

For industrial scissors lifts, the vast majority of sales volume comes from the 1,500lb to 6,000lb
capacity range. So some manufacturers will have a range of models labeled “Heavy Duty”. This
may start at 8,000lbs capacity or something higher. It does not mean that these lifts will endure
any more cycles than the smaller capacity lifts. Applications that push scissors lifts to their
cycling limit will have the same effect on standard and heavy duty lifts.

DESIGN CRITERIA FOR INDUSTRIAL SCISSORS LIFTS

The governing body for industrial scissors lifts is the Lift Manufacturers Product Group (LIFT) of
the Material Handling Institute of America (MHI). It is the resource for industry best practices,
standards, information, and equipment that lifts, rotates, tilts, and otherwise positions materials.

LIFT members meet regularly to review, discuss and revise the standards for design,
performance and proper operation of scissor lift tables, tilt tables, and turn tables. This includes
the development and promotion of industry standards for the design, performance and proper
operation of lifts and lift systems as well as safety, training, inspection and maintenance
recommendations that are available to all lift users. Current members include:
Autoquip, Advance Lifts, Bishamon, 4Front, Pentalift, and Southworth.

ANSI MH29.1 – Safety Requirement for Industrial Scissors Lifts is the standard in the industry.
While it is voluntary, all the leading manufacturers comply. It covers basic manufacturing
elements like electrical wiring, structural strength, stability, guarding, etc. It does not address
maximum cycle speeds allowed or minimum warranty or life expectancy.

COMMON FAILURE MODES

Industrial scissors lifts are very robust designs that generally see service lifes of 10, 20, or 40
years with minimum regular maintenance. However, some severe applications can precipitate a
premature breakdown of various lift components. This is where HICY options are typically
recommended.

Motor failure
Manufacturer’s typically use intermittent duty motors in the internal power units to minimize the
foot print and fit inside the frame of the lift. Due to the inherent nature of a scissors lift cycle this
is acceptable. Most lifts take less than a minute to raise (with the motor running) and then the
lowering part of the cycle is almost always gravity driven. This gravity down portion of the cycle
allows the motor to cool. Additionally, industrial scissors lifts are rarely used continuously; this
insures the motor has more than adequate time to recover from the previous cycle.

When a lift is required to run frequently with short intervals for cooling, this style of motor can
over-heat and lose efficiency and fail prematurely. To counteract this problem, the manufacturer
will specify a continuous running motor, usually at a higher horsepower.
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Property of Autoquip Corp. and shall not be reproduced without written consent by Autoquip
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Oil failure
Continuing with the high frequency example from the last section, it can also lead to oil issues in
hydraulic power units. While the oil volume is mathematically sufficient for the application, oil
temperatures can easily exceed allowable levels. Hydraulic fluid temperatures above 180°F
(82°C) damage most seal compounds and accelerate degradation of the oil. While the operation
of any hydraulic system at temperatures above 180°F should be avoided, fluid temperature is
too high when viscosity falls below the optimum value for the hydraulic system’s components.
This can occur well below 180°F, depending on the fluid’s viscosity grade. Overheated oil can
lead to premature oxidation or thermal breakdown. This in turn may result in sludge or sediment
formation which can also cause problems for the gear pump. There have been examples of
plastic tanks melting due to the temperature of the oil.

This problem can easily be avoided by sizing the tank appropriately for the application or adding
an oil cooler to the system.

Bearing failure
Many scissors lifts come standard with DU® style bushings at pivot joints. Technically it is a
steel-backed, porous sintered bronze impregnated with PTFE and lead. This style of bushing
has high temperature and load carrying characteristics. DU® bushings can be run dry or
lubricated to extend their life. It is an economical solution to the oscillating motion and load seen
by a scissors lift.

Another option for scissors lift bushings is the filament would composite. It has higher load
carrying capacity than a DU® bushing at the relatively slow rotational speed of a scissors lift
while offering longer life due to the thickness of the liner. These composite bushings do not
require lubrication to extend their life. They also tolerate contamination better.

So when an application requires an extended life cycle, or longer periods between maintenance,
or may be in a harsh environment, many manufacturers will use the composite bushings.

Roller failure
Most manufacturers use some type of roller at one end of the scissors legs. These are
commonly made from medium carbon steel and will use a bushing. A longer lasting, more
expensive option is some type of cam follower that is a higher grade (harder) steel and uses
tapered, needle, or roller bearings instead of a bushing. Some manufacturers also offer
hardened runner strips on which the cam followers run.

EASE OF MAINTENANCE
Another aspect of HICY features is the ability to do maintenance on a lift with little or no down
time. These, again, are applications where running every day or 24/7 is not uncommon. Below
is a list of common methods manufacturer’s use to accommodate this.

Removable Bushings
Besides using composite bushings, some manufacturers offer a removable bushing assembly.
This allows maintenance to be done without disassembly of the lift, thus reducing down time.

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Property of Autoquip Corp. and shall not be reproduced without written consent by Autoquip
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2-Piece Clevis
Cylinders are retained in the lift by some sort of pinned connection. Most lifts require the pin to
be driven out of the clevis or cylinder in order to remove the cylinder for maintenance. Bolted 2-
piece clevises allow the cylinder to be removed more quickly without removing the pin.

NFPA style cylinders

These cylinders are standardized by the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA). This enables
cylinders from different manufacturers to interchange within the same mountings. Usually these
cylinders are a national brand which will have local distributors for parts.

External Power Unit

These can feature benefits like an in-line/external oil filter, or quick-access drain plug.

DETERMINING APPLICATIONS REQUIRING HICY PACKAGES

The Material Handling Institute of America (MHI) defines High Cycle Lifts as the following:

High Cycle Lifts (over 100,000 cycles per year)

Industrial scissors lifts which are placed into repetitive, automated manufacturing or conveyance
applications which demand more than 100,000 equipment cycles per year are typically equipped
with several design features to greatly reduce equipment fatigue and promote quick component
replacement during system down-times. These features can include lower than normal hydraulic
system pressures, impact-resistant bearings, industrial cam followers, replaceable pins at all
joints, and replaceable hardened alloy wear strips along all roller paths.

Each manufacturer has its own criteria for when a lift application is deemed HICY. Most will look
at the number of cycles expected each year. Cycle frequency is also examined. Considered the
examples below:

Lift Cycle frequency # shifts/day days/week Cycles/yr

A 1/ min ½ 5 62,400
B 1/10 min 1 7 17,472
C 1/6 min 3 7 87,360
D 2/min ½ 1 24,960

In these examples, Lift ‘A’ is considered a more severe application than Lift ‘B’ even though it is
only used ½ a shift, 5 days a week. Notice also that Lift ‘D’ would require a HICY power unit due
to the frequency of the cycles when they do occur.

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Property of Autoquip Corp. and shall not be reproduced without written consent by Autoquip
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Customers should also review the warranty. Listed below are some examples of various
“standard” lift warranties in the industry. The assumption is anything in excess of these values
would fall into the HICY category. Keep in mind that applications requiring ‘jogs’ should count
those as 1 cycle each.

For example, a lift that indexes up each time a sheet of drywall is removed from the stack. The
lift may have a travel of 48in., but only raises 1in. at a time. So for that lift, if the stack is
unloaded 6 times and hour, it would constitute 288 cycles (48 jogs * 6 loads). Whereas another
lift may raise up and down the full travel every 2 minutes, but each hour would only be
considered 30 cycles.

Warranty
Vendor Cycle Limitations Restrictions
(structural)
A 2 years ??? Single shift usage
300,000
B 5 years calculated 60,000 cycles/yr
(5 x 60,000/yr)
25,000 calculated
C 10 years 250,000
(250,000 cycles/ 10 yrs)

Vendor ‘B’ will probably recommend a HICY lift when cycles exceed 60,000 per year. It’s
unclear from Vendors ‘A’ what warrants a HICY option and the 25,000 per year for Vendor ‘C’ is
extrapolated from the warranty. Some manufacturers will publish data for when a HICY lift is
recommended here is a list of some.

HICY lift recommended

Vendor
(cycles per year)
X 40,000 to 100,000

Y Above 60,000

Z 50,000 to 200,000

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Property of Autoquip Corp. and shall not be reproduced without written consent by Autoquip
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WHAT CONSTITUTES A HICY LIFT OR ‘PACKAGE’?
Generally, modifications a manufacturer makes from a standard lift to a HICY are driven by the
elements discussed in the previous sections COMMON FAILURE MODES and EASE OF
MAINTENANCE. Here is a list of common options that may be seen on HICY models.

 Continuous running remote power unit

 Higher horsepower power unit
 Larger reservoir (oil)
 Oil cooler
 In-line oil filter
 Composite life-time lubricated bushings
 Removable center axle pin/bushing assembly
 Sealed cam follower rollers
 Hardened runner strips (for the rollers)
 2-piece cylinder clevis
 NFPA style industrial cylinders

SUMMARY

The goal for any scissors lift manufacturer is to provide years of trouble free operation for the
customer. Each manufacturer will have its own definition of what constitutes a high cycle lift and
when that option is required. Hopefully this paper gives the customer some insight as to the
rationale behind what is driving the recommendation for added/more robust features on an
application.

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Property of Autoquip Corp. and shall not be reproduced without written consent by Autoquip
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