Column Lift Safety

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Rotary Lift’s patent-pending LockLight technology is now available for its Mach Series mobile column lifts, making it easier for technicians, supervisors, and health/safety inspectors to see at a glance if a lift is secure on its locks.

Every time a technician raises a vehicle for service on a lift designed with a load-holding lock device, standard industry safety practices require that the lift be ‘lowered to locks’ before starting work. To do this, the vehicle is raised just past working height and then slightly lowered until the mechanical lift locks engage. This process relieves the lift’s hydraulic pressure and places the load of the vehicle securely on those mechanical latches, reducing the chance that the vehicle will freefall if the hydraulic system fails.

Introduced for light-duty vehicle lifts early last year, the LockLight device mounts directly to a lift and shines a green light when it detects the lift’s hydraulic pressure has been relieved. The light indicates that the lift is resting on its locks and work can proceed. Without it, the only way to tell if a lift is on its locks is to press the ‘down’ button – if the lift moves, its locks are not engaged.

Rotary Lift says LockLight is the only product that provides a clear visual indicator that a raised lift is properly resting on its locks.

The new Mach Series LockLight features a light that is more than twice as large as the company’s light-duty version, providing enhanced visibility across large fleet facilities. The light mounts to the top of a column’s battery compartment, where it’s visible from 180 degrees around the column. The combination has been third-party-tested and certified by the Automotive Lift Institute to meet ANSI lift safety and performance standards.

Two versions of the LockLight kit are available, making it possible to retrofit any Mach Series mobile column lift. The first version (P/N M140112) works with standard Mach Series columns, while the second version (P/N M140115) works with columns that are already equipped with optional pressure gauges.

See the LockLight in action here.

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Rolf Lockwood is editor emeritus of Today's Trucking and a regular contributor to Trucknews.com.


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