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Our Mission
Promoting the safe design, construction, installation and use of automotive lift products.
About Us
The Automotive Lift Institute, Inc, (ALI) was founded in 1945 as the trade association of U.S. manufacturers of in-ground lifts. By 1988 the ALI welcomed members from Canada and North American marketers of overseas lifts.
The ALI in cooperation with the National Bureau of Standards sponsored the first standard governing vehicle lifts (CS142) in 1947. The ALI still considers safety its primary activity and currently sponsors the national standard ANSI/ALI ALCTV-98 "Automotive Lifts - Safety Requirements for Construction, Testing, and Validation". More information about standards and other safety activities of the ALI can be found below (See “What Good Are Standards?", an article in Occupational, Health, & Safety magazine).
Ongoing programs of benefit to ALI members include the monitoring of state and local regulations which may impact the industry, the collection of industry statistical information; improving the availability of automobile lifting point data; and development of news releases and public relations activity as needed.
The History of the Automotive Lift Institute
Third-Party Testing has Become an Industry Requirement
Founded in 1945
In 1945, emerging from the industrial chaos of WWII, the need for an association of automotive lift manufacturers was realized. Few lifts had been produced after 1940. The 15 or so manufacturers that survived the war were ready to resume production, but steel and most other raw materials used to produce automotive lifts were still under government allocation. High grade steel, required for machined pistons and cylinders and for forming superstructure components, was in short supply, and scrap steel of questionable quality was being reprocessed to manufacture some lifts.
Mechanics wanted more than grease pits to work from and the responsible lift manufacturers were worried. The quality of the lifts produced and the safety of the lift operator using that product were of primary concern to this industry in 1945, and that concern continues in the forefront of ALI activities today.
A Lift Construction Standard
In 1947, after 2 years of almost constant committee meetings and correspondence with the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), the first nationally recognized Commodity Standard governing "Automotive Lifts" (CS142) was hammered out and issued by our government.
CS142 was a construction standard covering the strength factors and material requirements for manufacturing IN-GROUND lifts, the only type of lift produced in this country until the mid-1970s. This original 1947 standard was revised several times before the final version, CS142-68, was officially withdrawn by NBS in 1975, having been replaced by ANSI B153.1-1974.
A Lift Performance Standard
By the late 1960s, Department of Commerce (DOC) directed NBS to withdraw from Commodity Standards activities and ALI was advised by NBS to go to ANSI with this industry standard. In 1971, ANSI was enthusiastically backing public sentiment which called for replacing construction standards with performance standards. This meant standards should not give requirements for materials and manufacturing methods, but only state how these products should perform in service.
At the same time, all industry was living in anticipation of the impending impact of the OSHA regulations, enacted in 1974. In rewriting the lift standard, ALI addressed safety issues with vigor. Safety devices that heretofore had been optional items in purchasing lifts, were made mandatory in manufacturing although some major purchasers, including oil companies, signed waivers to have lift products shipped without selected safety devices.
In-Ground Lifts Dominate into the '70s
In 1974, the first ANSI B153.1 issued. It covered in-ground lifts, with passing reference to the screw-drive lift, which was a surface-mounted type just being introduced in this country. (These still represent less than 2% of today's lift sales.)
By 1975, 2 oil crises had hit which curtailed gas/repair station construction and led to the conversion of many older stations to convenience stores. Lift sales dropped from about 42,000 units in 1969 to about 15,000 units in 1975. Several manufacturers failed and others merged, so that by 1975 there were 7 old line lift manufacturers and all supported and participated in ALI programs - and an estimated 98% of all new lifts sold in this country were produced by these companies.
Rusting and pitted in-ground lifts that had been removed from deactivated service stations and now of questionable quality and serviceability were a glut on the market, but they were being reclaimed by "junk" dealers and sold. This became a potential liability for the original lift manufacturer when lifts were re-installed in a different facility. Although safety was a primary concern of ALI, the industry could do little except watch it happen.
Surface Mounted Lift Sales Increase in the '80s
Financially, ALI was faced with extinction in the mid-1970s. By this time, however, a new concept in lifts was taking a foothold in the U.S. marketplace. By 1975 about 10% of new lift sales in the now depressed market were made up of surface-mounted lifts which used various operating principles. Many of these lifts came from overseas, some were being made by ALI members and a few non-member companies were initiating production of these "new" style lifts.
ALI adopted a revised Constitution and By-Laws in 1973, further revised it in 1975, to open what previously had been an "in-ground" lift manufacturers association so as to allow domestic producers of surface-mounted lifts and national marketers of foreign lifts (Affiliates) to become members. The economy improved, ALI grew, and in 1984 ALI had 16 member companies selling over 38,000 units, representing over 95% of U.S. sales.
Lift Markets Expand
Meanwhile, vehicle body construction was changing. Cars that were heretofore assembled onto underbody frames were now adopting the unibody and other frameless designs. For years, all major domestic and foreign automobile manufacturers replied to ALI's annual surveys requesting the car manufacturers to furnish ALI with their recommended pick-up points so that, in turn, lift manufacturers could supply lift owners with the necessary adapters, etc. that would reach those points and offer safety to lift operators. With the advent of the "frameless" car designs, ALI no longer benefited from their input (see below for additional discussion on lifting points).
Safety - The Primary Concern of ALI
When OSHA became law in 1974, ALI developed an "Operating and Maintenance Instructions" laminated 3"x 5" hang tag that was shipped with each new lift, and made available as a retrofit for older lifts. In 1980, this became an 8 1/2"x 11" "Safety Tips" glossy card that was generic to the lifts then being produced.
In the mid-1980s ALI developed its "Lifting it Right" Safety Manual and a special assessment of the 17 members was required to type set and produce the first 50,000 manuals. This assessment was a big step considering that ALI's normal annual revenue had been under $75,000. Over 1 million copies of this Safety Manual, now in its 4th edition, have been distributed by members, or sold to vo-tech/trade schools or the public since 1987.
The 1974 standard, went through 2 revisions (1981 and 1990), and ANSI/ALI ALCTV-1998, "Safety Requirements for the Construction, Testing, and Validation of Automotive Lifts" was adopted as the new nationally recognized voluntary consensus standard for the lift industry on October 1, 1998. The current ANSI standard requires the shipping of safety materials, including a "Tips" card and a Safety Manual with each new lift.
ALI Membership Grows with Record Lift Sales
With the U.S./Canada Trade pact, the ALI Constitution and By-Laws was rewritten in 1983 to accept Canadian lift producers as manufacturing members; also, a membership initiation fee of $2,500 was introduced. Lift sales escalated during the early '80s, and the number both of lift manufacturers and of lift designs also grew, so that in 1988 ALI had 17 members selling over 49,000 lifts. However by then there were about 30 marketers, some with unique lift designs for specialized uses that they felt did not "fit" into what they perceived as ALI's "automotive lifts for the repair shop" image, so that member sales represented about 80% of all domestic sales.
ALI in the '90s - Safety, Safety, Safety
Lacking the vehicle lifting point information the industry needed, in late 1990 ALI induced the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) into providing assistance in the development of a SAE Recommended Practice for permanent under car identification of lift points and for car lifting point labeling, to be phased in as body styles change. This resulted in SAE RP-J2184, promulgated in late 1992. This SAE RP was adopted by ANSI as a national standard, and as it is implemented in new model years, it is expected to help prevent accidents involving swing-arm type lifts. Surface-mounted lifts of this type are the most popular in sales today and may soon become the most widely used lifts, as older styles are taken out of service. In 1997 ALI began the annual publication of "Vehicle Lifting Points/Quick Reference Guide" for frame engaging lifts covering 20 years of domestic and imported cars and light trucks.
Uniform Warning Labels
ALI's "Uniform Safety Warning Label" sets/placards took several years to bring to fruition, having contracted a safety consultant and the Univ. of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute to do the development and validation work. A special assessment of the members was again needed to fund the contracts work and the initial production costs in 1991. These sets/placards come in different styles specific to 6 lift types. Their use on certified lifts is required.
Safety Video
Development and initial production of a 17 minute video to serve as a companion to the "Lifting it Right" Manual took over 2 years and finally issued in mid-1993. Several thousand copies have been sold to members (for their distribution) as well as vo-tech schools and the public.
Maintenance and Installation Standards
In 1994, an ALI Committee developed an industry standard covering "Safety Requirements for the Operation, Inspection, and Maintenance of Automotive Lifts", first adopted as an ANSI voluntary safety standard in August 1996, that was revised and approved as an ANSI Standard in 2000. Another safety standard covering "Safety Requirements for the Installation and Service of Automotive Lifts" was approved as an ANSI voluntary safety standard in October 2001.
Lifts That Meet, or Don't Meet, the Voluntary Safety Performance Standards
ANSI/ALI ALCTV-1998 became fully effective on April 1, 2000. ANSI/ALI B153.1-1990 has been withdrawn. Both are performance standards requiring, in part, that catastrophic failure of the lift should not occur at less than three (3) times the lift's "rated load capacity". The most common lifts are "rated" at 7,000 and 9,000 pounds which means they should support 21,000 and 27,000 pounds respectively without collapsing. Skipping over the technical alternates, such as stress calculations, finite element analyses (FEA), etc., the usual and most practical way to run this test on these more common types of lifts is to raise the unloaded lift, load it with steel to the test weight, and see if it collapses.
Before ANSI/ALI ALCTV-1998 became fully effective all lift manufacturers were permitted to self-certify that their lifts meet (or exceed) the 1990 (B153.1) standard. Private testing had shown that lifts, in increasing numbers, were being marketed which fail the above requirement. Furthermore, printed safety materials, required by the standard to be included with new lifts, were not being furnished to owners.
Prior to 1985, the industry participants were few and the industry, through ALI, could "police" itself using the 1974 or 1981 ANSI standard. By 1995, about 50 companies were marketing lifts and ANSI/ALI B153.1-1990 had lost its enforcement teeth. With the adoption of ANSI/ALI ALCTV-1998, the lift manufacturer's claim of meeting the national standard for lift construction has to be backed-up by rigid testing and certification by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL).
International Issues
Another impending, but real, consideration is that the European Union (EU), and NAFTA, are forcing the U.S. (and the world) to look at technical barriers to trade (TBT), international standardization, assured quality (ISO-9000), harmonization, accreditation, conformity assessment, etc. To summarize, the lift industry's "producer declaration" of lift conformance to the national safety standard lost credibility; and international developments (including a mandated EU standard covering automotive lifts) necessitated that global considerations be factored into ALI's safety standards policy.
After many months of discussion at membership meetings during 1989, and a pilot program in 1990, the members authorized ALI to sign an agreement, in February, 1993, accepting Intertek Testing Laboratories (ETL) in Cortland, NY as ALI's third-party provider for testing of lifts. ETL is a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories (NRTL) in the eyes of OSHA. The ALI/ETL Automotive Lift Certification Program is backed by a Procedural Guide which names ETL as program administrator. It describes the program and covers general program administrative matters as well as requirements that do not involve physical testing; and also assures that they meet the performance requirements of the ANSI/ALI standards. This set of documents is copyrighted by ALI and available to the public at $1,000 for the set. The program is described in NIST publication SP903.
For a lift manufacturer to initiate evaluation of a lift, a three-party Program Participation Agreement must be signed between the lift manufacturer (and his U.S. subsidiary, if made overseas), ETL, and ALI which sets out the responsibilities of each party. Testing and qualification for listing of any type of automotive lift is available.
The ALI/ETL Certification Program received ANSI Accreditation in November 2001 and ALI was granted permission to use the "ANSI Accredited Certification Program" Mark. This ANSI program has been established to provide Government and Industry with a confidence in the competence of third party product certification programs like ALI's Automotive Lift Certification Program. Continued conformance with program qualification requirements is verified by ANSI through annual on-site assessments, including witness on-site assessment of a certified licensee, in our case a member of ALI. For lift buyers this allows informed decisions to be made, cutting down the risk of making decisions based on a wrong assessment, and provides a guarantee that the product has been assessed by an independent and competent body and inspires trust in the supplier, your ALI lift manufacturer.
Third-Party Testing as a Requirement for ALI Membership
In 1993, the members of the Automotive Lift Institute supported the decision that third-party testing and product listing in the "ALI/ETL Automotive Lift Certification Program" be made a requirement for ALI Membership (both current and new applicants). Membership By-Laws require ALI members to have at least 70 percent of all lifts sold by each member qualified for listing in the ALI/ETL Program.
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