When you need to move goods between floors, there are a few options available to you.
Option one is to use a passenger lift, either in its standard form or in its strengthened form if you are moving heavier loads. At the very least, the strengthened form requires reinforced steel plate flooring instead of the standard floor options. Additionally, the standard door sills almost always need to be upgraded from aluminium to steel or cast iron. However, the biggest change is that the structure of the lift needs to be strengthened too. In parts 1 and 2 of this series, we discussed the potential problems linked to the lift capacity vs floor area and the use of automatic doors. Here we note that these upgrades normally increase the price quite significantly, and passenger lifts are almost always more expensive than goods hoists to start with.
Another option, which we really can’t recommend, is to take a chance with what many refer to as an electric or chain hoist. For this option, instead of buying a lift, the purchaser chooses to rather buy a simplified version of a lifting machine that will be fixed to a structure of some kind somewhere above where the goods will be lifted. The advantage is that this approach is normally cheaper. One of the two biggest disadvantages is that they have none of the safety features of a goods hoist or passenger lift, so they introduce a major risk of product damage at best and injury/death at worst. Additionally, most countries have regulations when it comes to moving goods in this way. More often than not, the electric or chain hoist option is not actually legal in most countries. If there was an accident and someone was hurt or killed by this equipment, this would typically lead to an investigation and major issues for the building/business owner. A third major issue applies to users who need to load and unload quickly and often. Sustained, hard usage requires a product that is genuinely built for the purpose.
This is where goods hoists fit in. Cheaper than a passenger lift but justifiably more expensive than just a hoisting machine. Goods hoists have very similar safety features to passenger lifts, but where the passenger lift prioritised aesthetics, the goods hoist prioritises strength and function. Where the hoisting machine route prioritises cost at the expense of everything else, the goods hoist strikes the balance between cost and safety while also offering long term reliability even under sustained, hard use.
A goods hoist is a long term investment and consequently needs to be carefully considered. If you would like our assistance and guidance, please feel free to contact our engineering team who are more than happy to help. If you would like a quote, why not test our response times? I have complete confidence that our team will surpass your expectations.
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