Most actuator content written for material handling stops at "electric is better than hydraulic." That is not a specification. If you are designing a diverter arm, a lift table, a palletizer column or an AMR deck lift, you need to know what force the actuator sees, how many cycles per hour it must survive, what the environment will do to the seals, and which power bus it runs on ― before you shortlist a supplier.

This guide covers those five decisions, with the actual published specifications of our industrial actuator range, and points to the standards that genuinely apply. Where a figure is not published, we say so rather than estimate it.

Quick answer for engineers in a hurry For most indoor intralogistics duty: an IP65‒IP66 actuator, 24V or 48V DC, sized so  your worst-case load sits comfortably under the rated capacity, with duty cycle checked against your machine's cycles per  hour. Jump to the selection table or send us your load, stroke and cycle rate for a sizing reply.

Where Linear Actuators Sit in a Modern Warehouse

Warehouse automation spending is not a niche any more. Mordor Intelligence sizes the warehouse automation market at USD 29.98 billion in 2025, rising to USD 34.17 billion in 2026 and USD 65.74 billion by 2031, a 13.98% CAGR, with mobile robots alone accounting for 41.36% of 2025 spend (Mordor Intelligence, Warehouse Automation Market Size & Share 2026–2031, data as of January 2026). Every one of those mobile robots that lifts, tilts, docks or diverts something needs a linear motion element.

The reason electric actuation keeps replacing hydraulics and pneumatics in this space is prosaic: no fluid to leak onto inventory, no compressor running when nothing is moving, and position control that a PLC can read back.

Horizontal motion: diverters, pushers and transfer gates

Pop-up diverters, pusher arms and sortation gates are short-stroke, high-cycle applications. The force is usually modest — you are nudging a carton, not lifting it — but the cycle rate is brutal, and side load on the rod from an off-centre carton is the most common failure cause. Sizing detail is in our conveyor diverter and pusher actuator selection guide.

Vertical motion: lift tables, deck lifts and lifting columns

Scissor lift tables, pallet positioners and workstation lifts are the opposite: fewer cycles, far higher force, and a geometry that multiplies the load the actuator sees. A scissor mechanism at its lowest position can demand several times the force it needs when half-extended — which is exactly where most undersized designs stall. See how to size a linear actuator for an industrial scissor lift table.

For end-of-line palletizing, a lifting column rather than a rod-style actuator is usually the right answer, because the column carries the overturning moment. See lifting columns for cobot palletizers.

Mobile equipment: AGVs, AMRs and pallet trucks

On mobile equipment the constraint shifts to energy and packaging. The actuator runs off the vehicle's battery bus, and every watt it wastes as heat is a watt off the duty shift. 

We have already covered the mobile-robot case in depth in our linear actuator guide for AGV and AMR robots — this pillar deliberately does not repeat it. For the power-bus decision specifically, see choosing actuator voltage for battery-powered material handling equipment.

The Five Specs That Decide Whether an Actuator Survives in Intralogistics

1. Force — and why the label rating is not your working load

The rated load on a datasheet is the maximum the actuator can push or pull, not the load you should design to. Two adjustments matter:

• Mechanism multiplication. Your payload is rarely the actuator's load. Scissor geometry, lever arms and tilt frames all change the number, sometimes by a factor of three or more.
• Design margin. Running an actuator continuously at its rated limit shortens screw and motor life. Size so your worst case sits meaningfully below the rating.

Published load capacities across our industrial series:

All values as published on the linked product pages. Stroke length is built to order on every model in this series — tell us your required stroke and we will confirm the achievable envelope.

2. Duty cycle — the spec that quietly kills actuators

Every model above is published at a 10% duty cycle, defined as 2 minutes on / 18 minutes off. That definition is more useful than the percentage alone, because it tells you the thermal recovery window the motor was designed around.

This is the single most misread spec in material handling procurement. Buyers see "10%" and assume it means the machine can run 10% of a shift in any pattern they like. It does not — the on-time is limited per interval, not per shift. We have a dedicated walkthrough of the conversion in duty cycle for 24/7 warehouse actuators. If you want the underlying definition first, our earlier explainer linear actuator duty cycle explained covers the fundamentals.

3. Speed — and the force/speed trade-off

Speed and force trade against each other through the gear ratio. Our FY015 spec table shows this explicitly: 5 mm/s at 7,000 N, or 160 mm/s at 750 N — the same actuator family, different gearing. When you send a requirement, send force and speed together; either one alone is not specifiable.

4. IP rating — matched to the actual environment

IEC 60529 grades enclosure protection with two digits: the first for solid ingress, the second for liquids (IEC). Our industrial range publishes IP65 (FY028, FY015, FY015D), IP66 (FY020, FY021D, FY021C) and IP67 (FY015C, FY011E).

Choosing higher than you need adds cost and can add seal drag; choosing lower shortens life. The environment-by-environment mapping is in our IP rating guide for warehouse intralogistics actuators. For the general comparisons we have already published, see IP66 vs IP54 and IP66 vs IP69K.

5. Voltage — matched to your machine's power bus

Our industrial series publishes 12V, 24V, 36V, 48V and 72V DC options depending on model — the FY020, FY015 and FY015C spec tables list up to 72V DC. Operating temperature is published as −20°C to 65°C on the FY028, FY020 and FY015 spec tables.

What Does a 10% Duty Cycle Actually Allow in a Warehouse?

Work it through with the published definition of 2 min on / 18 min off:

1. The cycle period is 20 minutes, so there are 3 periods per hour.
2. Allowed motion time = 2 min × 3 = 6 minutes of movement per hour.
3. If one complete extend-and-retract takes 8 seconds, that is 360 s ÷ 8 s = 45 full cycles per hour.
4. If your conveyor diverts 200 cartons per hour, a 10% duty actuator is the wrong choice for that station — you need a different mechanism, a shorter stroke, or a higher-duty unit.

That arithmetic, done at the concept stage, prevents the most expensive failure mode in intralogistics projects: an actuator that passes the bench test and burns out in week three of production.

Selection Table: Application → Required Specs → JDR Model

Feedback options: the FY020 and FY015 pages state feedback sensors and signal-sending limit switches are available; the FY011E page states optional Hall sensors. Confirm the exact feedback type with us for your control architecture.

Get the numbers in one file.Request the Industrial Series spec sheet — force, speed, voltage, IP, duty cycle and available feedback options for every model.Request the spec sheet →

Which Standards Apply to the Actuator, and Which to Your Machine?

This distinction saves procurement arguments. Broadly:

• ISO 13849-1:2023 governs safety-related parts of control systems. Its official scope states it "specifies a methodology and provides related requirements … for the design and integration of safety-related parts of control systems (SRP/CS) that perform safety functions" (ISO). This applies at the machine control level — an actuator is a component within it, and the performance level is a property of your safety function, not of the actuator alone.
• IEC 60529 defines the IP code applied to the actuator enclosure (IEC).
• UL 1004-1 covers rotating electrical machines; its scope 1.1 states it "applies to form wound rotating electrical machines rated less than 460 volts and all other rotating electrical machines and linear motors, both AC and DC, rated 1,000 volts or less" (UL Standards). Relevant to the motor inside the actuator.

Machine-level standards such as ISO 3691-4 for driverless industrial trucks, ANSI/ITSDF B56.5 and EN/IEC 60204-1 for electrical equipment of machines apply to your finished equipment, not to a component actuator. We reference them by name only — confirm the applicable edition and clauses with your notified body or certification partner, because requirements differ by market and machine category.

Our published certifications: CE on the FY020 and FY015 spec tables, UL additionally listed on the FY015 table. Full breakdown in actuator compliance for material handling machinery.

How Do You Qualify an Actuator Supplier as an OEM?

The questions that actually separate suppliers:

1. Will you publish the duty-cycle definition, not just the percentage? "10%" without an on/off interval is unspecifiable.
2. What is the achievable stroke range for this force, and what is the retracted length? Retracted length decides whether it fits your frame — ask early.
3. Which feedback options exist for this exact model? Hall, potentiometer and limit-switch signalling are not universally available across a range.
4. What is the force/speed curve, not just the headline force? As the FY015 shows, the two ends of a range can differ by a factor of 30 in speed.
5. What happens at your temperature extremes? Cold-chain and outdoor dock applications sit at the edge of most published ranges.
6. Samples, MOQ and lead time for the customised stroke? Custom stroke is standard in this industry, but lead time is not.

Ergonomics is the quiet driver behind many of these projects. EU-OSHA notes that musculoskeletal disorders are among the most common work-related ailments, with manual handling of loads a key biomechanical risk factor (EU-OSHA) — which is often what justifies the capex for a powered lift table in the first place.

Frequently Asked Questions

What force rating do I need for a material handling linear actuator? 

Start from the worst-case static load at the rod, not the payload weight, then add the mechanism's multiplication factor and a design margin. Our industrial series publishes capacities from 2,000 N (FY021C) to 16,000 N (FY028).

Can a 10% duty cycle actuator run in a 24/7 warehouse? 

Yes — if your cycles per hour stay inside the limit. With the published 2 min on / 18 min off definition, that is about 6 minutes of motion per hour, roughly 45 full cycles if each takes 8 seconds.

What IP rating do warehouse actuators need?

 IP65 for dry indoor lines, IP66 where dust or driven rain is present, IP67 for wash-down and heavy condensation. All three ratings exist in our industrial range.

Should I use 24V or 48V actuators on an AGV? 

Match the vehicle's battery bus to avoid a converter. Higher voltage means lower current for the same power, allowing thinner cable and less heating.

Do you publish stroke lengths? 

Stroke is built to order across the industrial series, which is why the product pages list it as customisable rather than fixed. Send your required stroke with your force and speed and we will confirm what is achievable.

Can two actuators be synchronised on a lift table?

 Yes — this is standard for wide platforms. The implementation options are covered in our existing guide on how to sync two linear actuators.

Request a Spec Sheet or a Sizing Review

Send us four numbers — required force (N), stroke (mm), cycles per hour, and operating environment — and our engineers will come back with a model recommendation and the achievable stroke envelope within one working day.

Talk to our engineers → · Browse the industrial actuator series →

Sources

• Mordor Intelligence, Warehouse Automation Market Size & Share 2026–2031 (data as of January 2026): https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/warehouse-automation-market
• ISO 13849-1:2023, scope: https://www.iso.org/standard/73481.html
• IEC, IP ratings (IEC 60529): https://www.iec.ch/ip-ratings
• UL 1004-1, scope 1.1: https://www.shopulstandards.com/ProductDetail.aspx?productId=UL1004-1
• EU-OSHA, Musculoskeletal disorders: https://osha.europa.eu/en/themes/musculoskeletal-disorders
• LINAK, goods-to-person mobile robot application page: https://www.linak.com/ind-ohe/material-handling/goods-to-person-mobile-robot