Rotary Lift’s inbay technology: From drawing board to debut

The use of electronics has emerged in the vehicle service department. Rotary Lift president Michael Jobe describes how they have combined the necessary mechanical attributes with electronic to guide the mechanic.

A vehicle lift is considered to have basic functionality: It picks a vehicle up and puts it down. The potential, however, is much more than that. These days, lifts are moving toward being the cornerstone of repair shop's service bay. With increased capabilities and emerging technology, lifts can be transformed into repositories of important data. They now have the potential to become a complete information and connectivity resource for the technician, completely interactive in real time.

New "i" series lift with inbay technology

In developing the new "i" series lifts with inbay technology, the 76-year old vehicle lift manufacturing firm Rotary Lift started listening to the industry to find and focus on customers' unmet needs. As a result, Rotary Lift found that lift system customers - service and repair facilities, shop owners, and managers - were confronting large-scale technician retention and training issues. They were also looking for ways to increase productivity and throughput. These were front-burner issues that many managers were grappling with each day.

Carpe diem - Seize the day
As part of our initial research process, Rotary launched the first of its "voice of customer" initiatives, where we collected and analyzed customer information and industry data in order to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace. This information assisted our engineers in creating and refining concepts for a new lift system.

Unless electronics came into play, lift innovations would be limited. This follows an interesting industry trend, as much of the vehicle service equipment has become computerized. Tire changers and wheel balancers, for example, had recently gone this route, and these product evolutions have created more utility and service options for equipment manufacturers. The lift industry, however, has lagged behind this trend. The market never has associated electronics and its resulting value with a product like a lift.

Through a series of focus groups, customers, technicians, lift buyers, and dealers were able to detail what was lacking at their service facilities and share their staffing concerns. In addition to focus groups, we conducted visits to shops and dealerships and began quantifying our research.

"As a result of our visits, we saw firsthand that folks were modifying the lifts, adding electrical outlets, air lines, hose reels and phone jacks on the sides of the lifts," said Steve Green, director of new product development at Rotary Lift. "We saw customers who were making up for deficiencies."

This input helped formulate what would be the first prototype leading up to the new product concept, called inbay technology.

Inbay technology makes its debut
Based on Rotary Lift's R&D efforts, product engineers decided they needed an electronic format. Hence, inbay technology was launched during the first quarter of this year. It allowed Rotary Lift to develop new features and benefits to offer the end-user equipment designed to better meet customer's needs.

Inbay uses a patent-pending microprocessor-based controller to manage the lift's operations and give technicians easy access to important information. The introduction of inbay technology is expected to impact three vital management areas in the vehicle service industry - productivity, safety and employee recruitment and retention.

Inbay technology has been tested by ETL, an independent third-party testing laboratory, ensuring compliance with the American National Standard ANSI/ALI ALCTB-1998 and ANSI UL Standard 201.

The inbay control panel

Inbay technology: A closer look
The inbay control panel console mounts on the vertical post for two- and four-post surface lift applications. For in-ground SmartLifts, it mounts on the shop wall or on a separate freestanding pedestal.

The inbay screen features soft-touch membrane controls, so the technician can perform various functions more easily. With ergonomically sound, single-hand control, a technician can take advantage of all the functionality of more conventional lifts, at the same time having access to service, diagnostic and maintenance information almost instantly. Inbay-equipped lifts also include numerous safety and productivity-enhancing features, such as on-board training information.

Rotary "i" series lifts with inbay technology provide pickup point diagrams for most vehicles. Having quick access to the pickup points on the LCD screen helps train the technician and reduces the shop's risk of damage to the vehicle.

Solving problems and meeting needs
Currently, inbay technology applies electronic technology to control the operation of the lift and provides the user with important information. Down the road, the technology will do much more. The inbay technology platform has the potential to become the hub of a completely integrated back shop. A wide range of information will be accessible across the shop, including repair manuals, customer profiles, pricing information, inventory management, maintenance schedules, and diagnostics. The facility will be able to manage all of its service equipment operations, maintenance and diagnostics from a single point.

If you look at the evolution of pumping fuel, beginning with the traditional gas pumps of past decades to today's highly efficient fuel management systems, the functionality is the same but the wealth of information for the service or convenience store operation is unlimited.

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