Fall Protection for Dock Lifts

For over 30 years, we’ve focused on keeping employees working on elevated areas safer. We’ve focused on the inside of the facility used in material handling, manufacturing and distribution. Our original dual-gate safety system, the Roly model, has been installed in hundreds of facilities around the world.

It’s no secret we love creating custom-design safety gates for material handling and manufacturing facilities. In fact, it’s how our full line of pallet drop safety gate models has come to life. Our newest design, the Dock-Lift safety gate, launches this week and is another example of a customer asking us to create a fall protection solution for their needs.

We were contacted by a national grocery chain to help them make their operations safer, but their need was not inside the facility; it was in their loading docks, a busy area in which many deliveries are made each day.

Our engineering team worked to develop a new style of safety gate that would protect workers using dock lifts. Employees often ride the lift from ground or dock level to align with the tailgate of the tractor trailer when they are moving material on and off of the truck. When the lifts elevate, employees are at risk for falls if there is no protection provided on the lift.

The new safety gate model has been named the Dock-Lift safety gate, and it is now part of our standard product line. This design provides fall protection for employees riding the lift, and is available in a number of configurations and designs.

The Dock-Lift safety gates automatically close and lock into place as the lift elevates, forming a barrier for employees riding the lift, as they make the transition from the tractor trailer to the loading dock or ground level. The gates stay locked until the lift is lowered and back on the ground. The gates open when the platform is on aligned with the ground level so material can be transferred on and off the lift.

The newly designed Dock-Lift safety gates meet OSHA and ANSI codes for work platform lifts and aerial scissors platforms, and are available in powder coated mild steel. We’ve also been awarded U.S. Patent No. 9630823 for our swinging gate style Dock Lift safety gate, with another patent pending. The patents are numbers five and six for our safety gate product line.

We’re very excited to expand our reach into the loading dock area, and provide safety gate designs to keep workers safe outside of the facility too. Let us know if you have questions or a need for our new Dock-Lift safety gates.