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Factors To Consider When Looking For Heavy Duty Casters

By Edward Jackson


A caster is a simple wheel mounted on a fork so that the axis of the wheel rotation offsets slightly in relation to the mounting. The simple engineering concept helps the wheel to always be behind the shaft in respect to the direction of movement. Due to this ability to rotate or swivel around, it is possible to turn an object around its axis thus can be useful in cluttered spaces. The heavy duty casters have found their applications in the transport carts, aerospace building, ship and heavy industries too.

Material used in the construction dictate the properties of the caster itself. If the strong and durable materials are used, a caster that has been engineered well would bare similar strength and durability. Therefore, it is important to get the casters made by the strongest and durable materials since they tend to offer the same when working with.

A caster can be either rigid, swivel or semi-rigid. Rigid casters incorporate a wheel mounted on a fork and the orientation of work or direction is fixed. The swivel casters have an added joint on the fork to enable them to rotate about the attachment in 360 degrees. Rigid caster machines are used in the heavy duty application to move objects since they are stable and easy to keep in control unlike the swivel ones that can be hard to control.

During movements of any wheeled vehicle, at a certain critical speed the wheels tend to wobble. This is caused by the speed, weight borne by the vehicle and the trailing distance which is explained as the length between the axle and steering axis. This fluttering can cause issues in control therefore would pose a problem in bigger machines. Therefore, it is important to have information on speed limits on each caster in order to avoid accidents that may arise when the machine lose control.

Caster design improvements are important to making them more effective, efficient and improving on safety. These enhancements can be the toe guards to help protect being run over, steering and braking for better control, track wipes to ease movements and swivel locks to avoid derailing. Without the above improvements, they have been injuries reported after long use due to the vibration, back pains due to poor controls among other effects.

The caster wheel size; diameter, width and tandems affects their efficiency and working. A wider width caster wheel has more load capacity since it can distribute the weight over a larger surface area than a narrow wheel. A bigger wheel diameter proves to be much better to use in the rough and irregular surfaces since it can be able to bridge easily over than smaller wheels.

The working conditions of a caster put to a limit and restriction of certain material and their service time. Exposure to chemicals and liquids calls for a caster that is inert and can work in such harsh conditions, more loading calls for more strong casters. Also the amount work dictates that the caster be of durable material in order to service the purpose.

Lastly, when purchasing the caster, one should understand his or her requirements based on the type if surface or rail he is going to use. Flat surfaces call for flat padded or tired casters so as to reduce vibration and floor damage. For the rails, u- shaped, v-shaped and tapered are more preferred since they provide grip on the rail thus avoiding derailing.




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