65
PRODUCTS AERIALPLATFORMS
IRN JUNE 2014
reasonmanufacturers arebusyworkingout ways to
save their customers time andmoney.
One of the busiest companies this year has been
Skyjack. Apart from announcing the winner of its
Quest2013 to find the oldest working machine
produced in the manufacturer‘s 30 year history, it
has also sold its 100000
th
SJIII 3219 scissor.
The year-long Quest 2013 was launched at last
year’s Rental Show in Las Vegas and took in most
regions of the world, including South America and
Asia. Finally the oldest surviving machine, a 6.4
m working height SJ006-10, was tracked down in
Skyjack’s home country of Canada, belonging to
Kraner Electrical.
Meanwhile, at the Rental Show, Chicago-based
Metrolift was celebrating its purchase of the
100000
th
Skyjack SJIII 3219. The company has a fleet
of 1800machines, with 1000 of them being Skyjack
scissors. According to Skyjack it is theworld’s best-
selling scissor platform.
The next month at ConExpo, in Las Vegas, Skyjack
was making its move into the next generation of
scissors. The company launched a new electrically
powered rough terrainmodel, the SJ6832 RTE — the
first Skyjack product to be completely AC powered.
Skyjack described it as the “most compactmachine
on themarket that is capable of lifting 1000 pounds
(453.6 kg) to 32 ft (9.8 m).” It is the only machine
in its category with four-wheel drive and 45%
gradeabilityasastandarddesign, says thecompany.
The zero-emission scissor lift was built on the
same chassis as the existing diesel and dual fuel
68RT units. “There is more and more demand
for something with zero emissions as it’s more
universal on the job site – being the first in and last
out,” says Skyjack president BradBoehler.
Terex AWP has also beenmaking the runningwith
electric option rough terrain machines. Its latest
offering is the new GS-69BE (Bi-Energy) hybrid
electric scissor lift series, first launched in January
this year, then shown at theRental Show inOrlando,
in February. It’s the evolution of the current Genie
69 inRT andDC scissor series.
At JLG, Jeff Ford, global product director, aerial
work platforms, thinks further expansion of direct
electric drive is inevitable. “Originally back in the
90s with electric booms and now with electric
scissors, the use of electric drive has just really
changed everything. Not only does it reduce leak
points but it provides a lot more duty cycle which
people appreciate, because they forget to plug
scissors in, etc, and so I think that’s something you
will see expanding in the scissormarket.”
Snorkel. The company also showed a compact,
mini scissor, the now-ANSI-certified S3970RT which
was previewed at Bauma. The 10 ft (3m) platform
height, 30 in (762 mm) wide S3010E is now ANSI
certified for the North American market. The
company said the mini scissor stems from interest
in Europe for the Pop-Up product line, but with a
need for a driveable option. The S3010E has a “high
amp/hour rating for an extended operating period
betweenbattery charges.”
Rough terrainmachine
Aiming itself at the mature European and US
markets is US-based MEC Aerial Work Platforms. It
has introduceda60 ft (20.2m) rough terrain scissor
to competewith European-producedmodels in their
home countries. Itmade its debut at ConExpo.
The MEC 6092RT is the largest scissor to be
manufactured in North America and joins the MEC
'92' Ultra-Deck rough terrain scissor lift series. It is
based on the existing MEC 5492RT, which up until
now has been North America’s tallest production
scissor lift.
Jim Tolle, MEC director of international markets,
said, “The justification behind the 6092RT is to
address the highly priced European competitive
models. Wehave recognised a large gap in the large
deck European scissor lift product range versus the
large deckNorthAmericanproduct range.”
Moving away from high level access, the low level
access market is a massively untapped area and
one that manufacturers are becoming increasingly
interested in. TheUK leads theway in thissectorand
will continue todo so for the foreseeable futurenow
that PAS 250 is a Publicly Available Specification
for low-level work there. The specification covers
equipment with one working platform and side
protection, for use by one person with a maximum
platformheight of less than 2.5m.
Taking a step back in history, the initial
introductionof powered low level access equipment
in the UK followed the introduction of the HSE’s
Work at Height Regulations in 2005, says John
Mantall’s booth at BICES 2013.
The Snorkel S3970RT has now been ANSI
certified and is available to order in the US.
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