Rotary Lift has been granted United States patent No. 8,973,712 for its Trio vehicle lift arms. Trio arms have up to a 20 percent greater reach than traditional lift arms, so they can be used to service a wider range of vehicles, the company states. The lifts’ proprietary three-stage design enables technicians to more easily move the arms into position and then precisely position adapters exactly where they’re needed for proper lifting. Trio arms come standard on the Rotary Lift SmartLift 10,000 lb. capacity inground lift.
Rotary Lift introduced the original three-stage arm in North America in 2005. The original three-stage arms consisted of three telescoping sections that slid inside of each other so they could be extended or retracted as necessary to reach more vehicle pick-up points than was possible with traditional lift arms.
The original three-stage arm design has been widely copied and is now available on many light-duty two-post surface and inground lifts, according to the company. In 2011, Rotary Lift introduced an even better three-stage arm: the Trio. The Trio arm design keeps the first two telescoping arm sections and replaces the third with a multi-position sliding adapter integrated into the second arm. This design lets technicians easily interchange truck adapters, round polymer adapters or three-position flip-up adapters depending on the job at hand. They can easily rotate the adapters 360 degrees and can slide them from a fraction of an inch to several inches to precisely position them at the proper pick-up points.
“Trio arms have the most advanced arm design around. Their versatility, ease-of-use and precision makes them very popular with technicians, service managers and shop owners. A single lift equipped with Trio arms can service practically any vehicle under 10,000 lbs., from a unibody car to a light-duty pickup,” says Jim Dirksen, vice president of light-duty for Rotary Lift. “As the technician population ages, bay ergonomics become increasingly important. It’s easier to slide just one telescoping arm and then move an adapter than it is to slide two heavy arm sections. Plus, with today’s vehicle designs, it’s more important than ever that technicians lift a vehicle only at the OEM-designated lifting points. No other lift arm out there offers the fine adapter adjustment made possible by our Trio arm design.”
Trio arms were designed by Rotary Lift engineers in Madison, Indiana, and have been performance-tested to 20,000 lift cycles, which is the equivalent of 10 years of real-world use. All SmartLift inground lifts are third-party tested and Automotive Lift Institute (ALI) certified to meet ANSI lift safety and performance standards.
To learn more about SmartLift Trio arms from Rotary Lift, visit rotarylift.com/LIGHTDUTY/SmartLifts.
