How do hydraulic car lifts work? All car parking lifts are made to elevate a vehicle on a platform in order to create a space for a second car to park underneath. They can also safely lower that platform once the second car moves back out as well. However, the means by which car lifts achieve their movements may vary. Hydraulic power is a mechanism you might frequently see used in car lifts. We’ll explore what a hydraulic car lift is and how a hydraulic car parking lift works, so you can better understand whether this type of lift may work for your purposes.
What Makes Up a Hydraulic Car Lift
So how do hydraulic car lifts work? In general, hydraulic car lifts have a tank for oil or some other fluid, one or more pistons contained in a cylinder, and a motor-powered pump. The motor, pump, and fluid container can exist separately from the lift framework itself, though they are always connected to it. In such cases, you need a small dedicated space for those components nearby. The motor, pump, and fluid container may alternatively be directly attached to the lift or built into it in order to streamline the design and make it easier to implement. The pistons and cylinders are usually located on either, or both, side of the platform as a part of the vertical arms that hold it in place.
How Does the Hydraulic Lift Move?
Hydraulic parking systems don’t rely on the shifting of parts alone. They also make use of fluid pressure. This is why they must have a fluid of some sort housed within and working in tandem with their other parts. This is how a hydraulic car lift works. The pump part pushes the fluid out of its storage container into the connected cylinder that has the piston. As pressure builds up in the fluid, it pushes against the piston and moves it upward. This generates enough force to lift heavy loads attached to the piston and to hold them there firmly until the fluid is once again withdrawn by the actions of the pump. Since the cylinders and pistons are attached to either, or both, side of a car lift’s platform, they are what generates its controlled rising and falling.
Hopefully that answers the question of how hydraulic car lifts work. Hydraulic components are widely used in car parking lifts because of their reliability. You can have hydraulic car lifts installed for your building by contacting Harding Steel today. We specialize in helping our clients find ideal parking solutions through the use of our mechanical parking systems.