SEFAC Inc. unveiled its new mobile lift, the 18 Type, designed to provide more operating capability.

Additionally, all of the supplier’s mobile lifts are now manufactured in its Baltimore headquarters.

The new 18 Type lift has been in development for five years. The mechanics of the column are almost identical to its predecessor, which was launched in 2008, according to the company. The electronics have been completely re-engineered to achieve a high level of reliability while providing the operator with user friendly controls and innovative capabilities encompassing further enhanced fault finding, the ability to operate as a set of two, four, six and eight columns without modification, company officials said.

“I have been involved in the mobile lift industry for more than 30 years and have never wavered from my belief in an ACME threaded screw drive,” said Allister Collings, president of SEFAC. “Its self-locking characteristics have served many thousands of customers well, so we were never likely to switch to an alternative system. Inevitably, in those 30-odd years, electronics have come to the fore and what we were looking to achieve was the robust reliability of 1970s technology with the innovative and user-friendly controls of the new millennium. Very early on in the process, it became apparent that the limitations of [power line communication] technology are substantially the limitations of the individual programming them, so this gave us the motivation to really aim for the stars. We believe that with the 18 Type we have delivered on this without compromising on the reliability.”

All SEFAC lifts are backed by the supplier's service team, which provides no charge, in-house technical support and annual OSHA safety inspections, according to the company.