Lift tables are among the commonly used material handling units you can get in an industrial or warehouse setting. Using a scissor lift table can enhance your company’s productivity. Further, they play a major role in cutting down the risk of workplace-related injuries to your employees. These two reasons are enough to convince entrepreneurs to buy a lift table to facilitate workplace operations.
With the growing demand and popularity of lift tables, choosing the ideal unit for your needs is fast becoming a difficult task. If you’re not conversant with the scissor lift table or don’t understand the best unit for your needs, you may have a difficult time making a decision. This guide should ease the process.
What Are Lift Tables?
Lift tables are work boards that can be raised and lowered using mechanical methods. Many lift tables utilize the scissor mechanism linked between the deck also known as the upper platform and the lower base. When the scissor part extends or descends, it connects on pivot pins or hinged joints that regulate the principles of the mechanism. Cam bearings and rollers also reinforce the mechanical ability of lift tables to utilize specified loads.
Lift tables have multiple capabilities and configurations. They also utilize different power sources to execute the lift mechanism safely during the raising process, when the load is held stationary during the transfer of products, and during the process of lowering the load back to the ground. Advanced and quality developed tables come with safety features that are specially designed to safeguard operators and the products they’re managing.
Lift Table Applications
Some of the common table applications comprise of; managing palletized freight when it’s loaded and offloaded in an industry setting or warehouse. The main reason why many entrepreneurs adopt the lift table is to adjust the project to guarantee the employee ergonomic benefits.
This means that employees don’t have to reach, bend, or even overwork themselves, which exposes them to muscular-skeletal disorders. Using lift tables in your facility reduces repetitive tasks and employee fatigue which causes musculoskeletal disorders. MSDs are common in approximately 1.2 million people working across various warehouse and storage facilities in the USA. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 31% of worker injuries experienced in the warehouse and storage sectors were MSD related.
Employees suffered from strains and sprains that would have been prevented easily by adopting ergonomically designed tools such as the lift table. One of the biggest advantages of adopting a lift table is the ability to adjust the platform and its load to ensure that employees are comfortable. This is also referred to as a power zone, a region located between the shoulders and the knees where individuals have the most robust control without stooping or reaching excessively.
Understanding Ergonomics in Lifting Materials
To understand the ergonomics implicated in lifting materials, you need to be conversant with the publication Ergonomic Guidelines for Manual Material Handling regulations of the National Institute of Safety and Health, as well as the United States Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This is a critical resource when it comes to getting conversant with the worker performance and ergonomic safety that can be highly improved with the use of lift tables.
Enhancing Safety with Lift Tables
Lift tables are designed to assist workers in the process of handling heavy loads or dealing with repetitive tasks that increase their risk of injury. Appropriately designed and well-selected lift tables enable warehouses and various other sectors to fit within the needs of the employee rather than forcing the employee to fit within the requirements of the task.
The material handling guide released from NIOSH and OSHA mention the ergonomics to be 6-Es. This is where workers utilize energy and equipment exertion to efficiently, effortlessly, and effectively finish their tasks. By using lift tables in a working environment, entrepreneurs can reduce the risk of ergonomic injury, as well as eliminate the conditions that promote MSD related injuries.
Finally
When it comes to choosing a proper lift table, you need to first understand the type of table you need for your situation. Factor in all the requirements depending on your operations such as weight capacity, material composition, ad environmental concerns. These are critical factors to consider before choosing a lift table.