Industries including automotive, marine, aerospace, tire manufacturing, heavy equipment, agriculture, and more are always looking for good ways to improve productivity, efficiency, and safety while maintaining the quality of their product or services. In many industries, casters play a very important part. They are used in equipment carts, material handling equipment, wheels, and more.
Choosing the Best Casters for Material Handling Starts at The Top
Senior engineers and VP of engineering for industrial applications where the goal is to improve safety and productivity, can turn to a company such as Caster Concepts.
Choosing the correct casters should start at the design and product engineering stage. Moving heavy loads in industrial settings requires heavy-duty, high-quality solutions. Extreme-duty applications must be durable, reliable, meet or exceed industry standards, be built in the United States, and they must be engineered correctly for high-risk applications.
How to Determine the Correct Caster for Each Job
First, consider the weight requirements and the caster weight capacity. Determine the heaviest weight to be moved and then choose a caster that is rated for that weight plus a safety factor.
What will the terrain the casters are going to be used on be like? Is the terrain rough and uneven or is it a smooth surface? It makes a difference. If the casters will be used on different terrains at different times, the casters selected should have polyurethane or rubber wheels. But with smooth surfaces, casters with solid rubber tires are good. Casters that have pneumatic tires are better for rough terrains.
It is important to choose heavy-duty casters that are durable. Durable casters have features including sealed bearings, corrosion-resistant coatings, and materials that are high-strength. If the casters will be used under conditions like high humidity or extreme temperatures, choose casters rated for those conditions.
Another consideration of importance is the mounting type. Heavy-duty casters come with different mounting types. Choose the mounting type that is suited to the use and conditions. There are top plate-mounted casters for stable loads with few side forces. Then there are stem-mounted casters for applications involving side forces.
Decide whether swivel or locking features are needed. Swivel casters go in any direction and rigid casters only go in a straight line but are more stable. Locking features can prevent loads from moving accidentally.
Casters can have noise-reducing features. casters can contribute to noise and vibration problems, so choose the ones with shock-absorbing features or with larger wheels or softer materials if that is a problem.
Finding the Right Caster when it Is Time to Order
Caster Concepts has heavy-duty casters to handle weights from 2,000 pounds to 4,999 pounds and with many designs and features. Talk to a company customer service professional for advice on the correct caster for the project you are designing or engineering.
To Specify a caster, the following information will be needed:
- Wheel diameter
- Caster style
- Caster material
- The overall height
- The top plate size
- Bearing type
- Wheel width and type
- Keyway size
- Bolt Hole pattern
- Series
- Brand selection
A customer service professional can help engineers and others determine the answers to the above categories. Getting everything right will lead to a better end result. With the industry’s needs and standards for safe operation of equipment and material moving, it is essential to get it right the first time.
