Safety and productivity are some of the considerations that you can’t afford to ignore when your business involves working with dock lifts. Dock lifts can increase the safety of your employees while also increasing the efficiency of your processes and make truck loading easier. They deliver precise positioning of products of almost any weight, with a wide range of platform sizes and vertical travel heights to choose from.

One of the most important decisions that you will have to make when choosing a dock lift for your facility is whether or not you would like it installed in a pit. Installing your dock lift in a pit allows you to achieve absolute zero lowered height.

Here are five considerations to guide you when deciding if you should build a pit for your dock lifts:

    • Roof Height – Dock lifts are ergonomic, economic, efficient, and safe solutions that provide workers with a healthful and safe working environment. However, there are certain working settings where the roof height does not allow for high operations. In buildings with lower roofs, a pit-installed dock lift will increase vertical travel and will therefore allow your workers to perform a wider range of operations at the desired height without making any potentially dangerous adjustments.

 

    • Vehicle Traffic – Pit-installed dock lifts are flush with the floor when completely lowered, and therefore allow vehicles and other equipment to be driven overtop. Materials can be easily positioned on the lift at floor level by a pallet jack or forklift and then raised to the desired height.

 

    • Versatility – A pit-installed lift makes it easier to load and unload trucks of varying heights, including those at floor-level, without the need for ramps.

 

    • Ease of Loading – Dock lifts installed in a pit can greatly improve the ergonomics of your workplace. Product can be loaded from ground level to truck level without having to break down pallets. Workers can load and unload a truck without the need for excessive manual lifting, bending or repositioning.

 

  • Safety – You must always ensure that your dock lift has been fitted with safety measures when installing it into a pre-formed pit. Pit-installed lift tables from Pentalift are equipped with special safety features to protect employees working around the equipment. Beveled toe guards force objects hanging over the edge of the pit out of the way, or toe sensor bars are installed to stop the descent of the dock lift when they come in contact with an object.

Interested in improving your efficiency, ergonomics and safety with a pit-installed dock lift? Contact us today to find a custom solution that meets your application.

Mike Earle

 

Tags building a pitcustom dock liftscustom liftsdock liftsloading dockspit installed liftspits