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What Makes A Car Lift Or Auto Lift Work

August 11th, 2009 · No Comments

A majority of the auto lifts that are manufactured are uses hydraulics. Therefore many different designs of hydraulic auto lifts are in used today in automotive shops or even in your residential homes. Residential homes utilize the lifts for storage purposes. The most common designs of hydraulic lifts are the two post lifts and four posts lifts with arms that extend beneath the car to lift the car by the frame or at specified lifting points. Another common design, sometimes called a “drive-on” lift, has solid metal tracks for the car to drive onto before being lifted. Other designs sometimes use a center column sunk into the floor beneath the lift that is referred to as in-ground lift. Regardless of the design, all auto lifts operate using hydraulic lifting systems.

A auto lift operates using the same basic concept as any hydraulic lifting system. The way it works is when you apply force to a liquid in one place; the pressure is transmitted through the system to exert an effect somewhere else. Car lifts use hydraulic fluid which is petroleum oil with additives that cannot be compressed no matter how much pressure you exert on it. Instead, the fluid flows through the hydraulic system and moves a cylinder that raises the car off the ground. Some car lifts use an air compressor, while others use an electric motor. Regardless the power source utilized the basic functionality is the same. The lift exerts force on the hydraulic fluid, which in turn moves a cylinder to raise the car or vehicle. Trading force for distance is a common idea in mechanical systems. In the case of a car lift, this means connecting a narrow cylinder to a wide one via hydraulic lines. Oil compressed through the narrow cylinder travels a great distance. When that force is transferred into the wide cylinder, it moves a shorter distance, but with much greater force.

The same theory is used to operate the brakes on your car: when you press down on the brake pedal, the force is transferred through the fluid in the brake lines to the master cylinder, which transmits force equally to the calipers at all four wheels. Because the brake fluid cannot be compressed, you can push down harder on the pedal to exert more pressure on the brakes. This is why it is crucial to eliminate any air bubbles from your brake system by “bleeding” the brake cylinders. Air, unlike hydraulic fluid, can be compressed. So if air bubbles are present inside your brake lines, the force you apply to the brake pedal is used in part to compress the air bubbles instead of pushing on the calipers, which reduces the efficiency of your brake system.

You can read more about car lifts and auto lifts at http://www.affordableautomotiveequip.net and at http://www.garagegadgetsinc.com. On both there sites you will find the different types to two post hydraulic lifts and four post hydraulic lifts.

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