Science challenge:
Build a scissor lift
🎯 Objective
Using your knowledge of joints and levers, create a mini scissor lift that can lift weights placed on it.
🔧 You will need:
- Card
- Fasteners
- Scissors
- Weights
- Glue (not provided) or tape
📖 Glossary
Linkages are formed by joining levers together, and they can be used to change direction of motion and amount of force.
🧪 Science background
Scissor lifts are a type of equipment used for lifting heavy things vertically, and are mostly used in the construction industry.
They use a mechanical linkage system, which is when a system of rigid bars are connected using either rotating or sliding joints. Linkages can be used to amplify force and motion, which is why scissor lifts are able to lift very heavy things.
🔧 How to build a scissor lift
Follow the steps below!
❓ Advice
- This works best if the bars are rigid. Can you layer the cardboard to help with rigidity?
Create ‘X’ shapes with strips of cardboard
Cut cardboard into equal length strips to create bars. Use the provided fasteners to connect the bars to create X shapes.
You can either come up with your own design or use the provided template.
Step 1/4
Fasten the X shapes together
Fasten the top and bottoms of each X shape together to create a series of linkages.
Step 2/4
Create the lift structure and attach it to your linkages
Create infrastructure for your lift! This could be a base plate or supporting platform to hold weights at the top of the lift.
Secure this to the linkages.
Use another horizontal linkage to go on top of the platform, so that the platform "slides" between two horizontal linkages.
Step 3/4
Test your scissor lift
Lay the base of the lift on a flat surface and try pulling and pushing the bars of the bottom X.
Add weights on top to test the strength. You can play around with the length of bars, the number of X’s, and the thickness of the bars to test what makes the strongest scissor lift.
Step 4/4