Goods lifts (freight elevators)

A goods lift is intended for goods and may not allow people to travel in it, apart from an attendant. A goods-passenger lift is designed for both goods and passengers, so it has to meet the full set of safety requirements for carrying people - more accurate levelling, an appropriate car finish and communication devices.

The weight of the truck or stacker itself and the weight of the operator are added to the weight of the load. A separate check covers not the total weight but the point load from the wheels on the car floor - that is what determines the frame design and the floor plate thickness. That is why we ask for the make and service weight of the machinery, not just how many kilograms you carry per trip.

Swing doors give the full opening and cost less, but they are opened by hand, and in a warehouse they regularly get hit by pallet corners. Automatic sliding doors are more convenient and safer, but the mechanism takes up part of the width - with the same shaft, the clear entry is narrower. If pallets are loaded right up to the car walls, that is the decisive argument for swing doors.

It depends on the version. A lift with an attendant allows the person accompanying the load to be in the car and has the appropriate safety and communication equipment. A lift without an attendant is controlled only from the landings, and people must not ride in the car. This is recorded in the equipment's technical passport, so the decision has to be made at the ordering stage.

With a low travel and a heavy load, hydraulics usually wins: the load is transferred to the pit floor, no structure is needed above the shaft, and the hydraulic power unit is placed in an adjacent room a few metres from the shaft. The practical limit is about five or six floors. Under intensive use the oil heats up, and an electric drive with frequency control is the better choice there.

Yes. A goods lift is subject to the same scheduled checks, technical passport and logbook keeping, and periodic third-party inspection. In industrial settings the conditions are even harsher than in a residential building: dust, humidity, impacts on the doors. That is why we usually keep the inspection intervals for guide rails, safety gear and door mechanisms shorter than on passenger lifts.