Cargo & Goods Elevators

A goods lift lives a harder life than a passenger lift. It is loaded by trolley and forklift, its walls are knocked, its floor takes point loads, and it is often run at full capacity for an entire shift. Building one is less about ride comfort and more about structure: heavier guide rails, thicker car frames, reinforced sills and a drive sized to be working well below its limit.

Car interiors are specified for abuse rather than appearance. Floors are chequered steel plate or hardwood-lined for grip under wet loading; walls are protected to full height with steel bumper rails; corners are rounded and welded rather than screwed. Where forklifts drive into the car, sills are reinforced to take the wheel loading of a loaded truck crossing the gap.

Door arrangements follow the loading method. Vertical bi-parting doors give the full car width for pallet handling and are the usual choice in warehousing. Heavy-duty horizontal sliding doors suit production floors where side clearance is short. Two-entrance cars, with doors on opposite faces, allow a trolley to be pushed straight through instead of reversed out — a small detail that measurably speeds up a loading dock.

Duty rating is the specification that matters most and is the one most often got wrong. A lift rated for occasional movement will not survive continuous shift work, however generous its stated capacity. We size the machine, brake and controller for the actual number of starts per hour the operation demands, and we say so in writing on the quotation.