| Telehandlers and scissor lifts are two devices | | | | pickers in the way they operate in that the end is |
| used to lift and carry people and objects and | | | | on a crane with a neck and multiple moveable |
| have many uses for building, maintenance and | | | | joints. This means that the end can be more |
| even entertainment. Roughly they fall into the | | | | precisely controlled and steered into specific areas |
| categories of elevated work platform and forklift | | | | rather than going directly up and down. Unlike a |
| and have some large differences that alter the | | | | cherry picker however, there is no caged area |
| way in which they are used drastically. | | | | for a worker to stand on, instead there is a fork |
| Essentially a scissor lift is a vertical lift that | | | | that allows the end to get under and lift crates |
| operates using a series of interconnecting | | | | and palettes and other heavy items and to place |
| cross-sections that open and close like scissors | | | | them down gently. This means that they can |
| (hence the name). This means they can compress | | | | move and place heavy items in specific areas |
| or extend directly upwards but that the work | | | | without needing a worker to stand on the |
| platform itself cannot be moved or steered in | | | | platform. |
| other directions separately (as it can be with say | | | | The two differ in several ways then and have |
| a cherry picker which is useful for reaching | | | | different strengths and weaknesses. On the one |
| difficult-to-access areas). The fact that the | | | | hand the scissor lift can bear a heavier load, but |
| mechanism operates directly beneath the | | | | on the other it can only move directly upwards. |
| supportive platform also means that the system | | | | At the same time the heavy object needs to be |
| can bear a large amount of weight as it's pushing | | | | somehow placed on top of the lift (often done |
| directly down on the scissors as they push | | | | using a raised platform or lifted using people or a |
| directly upwards. The hydraulic or pneumatic | | | | forklift). Meanwhile the telehandler has more |
| nature of the system also means that there is a | | | | flexibility but can carry less. For example then, the |
| fail safe - should the power cut or the system | | | | scissor lift would work very well for raising a car |
| falter then the scissor lift will still compress gently | | | | to work underneath it (if the scissor lift had a hole |
| with the air or water inside offering resistance. | | | | underneath) and would offer the most safety in |
| These factors combined mean that scissor lifts | | | | this situation. Similarly it would work better for |
| can take great weights, and makes them useful | | | | raising a pile of bricks to be used to build the top |
| for lifting not only workers who need to work at | | | | of a wall. Meanwhile a telehandler would be better |
| a higher level, but also heavy objects and | | | | for placing boxes or palettes onto shelves. In |
| materials such as crates that need to be raised to | | | | some cases a telehandler can be fitted with |
| another level. | | | | attachments to hold other objects such as a |
| Meanwhile telehandlers are much more like cherry | | | | window pane. |