Factors To Consider When Looking For Heavy Duty Casters
By Edward Jackson
By definition from the dictionary, a caster is a small wheel on a swivel attached under a piece of furniture or heavy object to make it easy to move. For the casters, they are designed for the toughest applications like ship and aerospace building many other heavy applications. Long life durability and strength is one criterion one should put into consideration while buying heavy duty casters.
The caster construction material is primarily responsible for giving its chief properties that are strength and durability. Steel made casters are the ones most preferred when it comes to the heavy duty applications since they can provide required weight carrying capacity, mechanical strength. Therefore, one should look for the caster made from the materials that can service the purpose required.
One should also consider if the caster to buy is a swivel or rigid. Swiveling is the ability for the gear to rotate on its axis over a few degrees to a whole turn. Rigid casters are more likely to be used in the heavy duty applications since they provide much steady movements. The swiveling comes in handy in some applications since they help ease movement in cluttered space for they can make easy turns.
Caster fluttering is the rapid swaying sideways of the gear during movements. This oscillation can also be referred as shimmying. It occurs at certain critical speeds at which the wheels start to wobble. It is caused by weight and the distance between the axle and the steering axis or what is called trailing distance. A solution to this issue is getting the speed limits to the specific casters and its weight limits to avoid it going out of control when in use.
Long time operations and use of caster driven cars or carts can cause injurious effects to the user. Therefore, better research on improvement and enhancement has been one of the projects for the design engineers. This includes the improvement on caster wheel tires and padding, getting the best length of trailing offset to avoid fluttering, brakes and steering system to ease control. All these improvements are aimed to make the casters more efficient and effective in their applications.
Wheel diameter, size and their tandems affect the effectiveness and efficiency of the caster gear. The bigger the wheel diameter, the easier it gets for it to ride over uneven surfaces with the least effort and vibrations. One can also increase the weight carrying capacity by having tandems that tend to distribute the weight over bigger surface area.
Environmental conditions where a caster will be used also dictate the type of caster to buy. The type must be able to work with maximum efficiency with the least maintenance cost. In high temperatures and moist areas, any caster made of metal prone to rusting cannot be advised. In such areas, aluminum and thermal plastics that can stand high temperatures are more applicable. If there is chemical exposure, inert materials like plastics can be used to avoid casters made of reactive metals.
Also the type of caster wheels are dictated by the type of surface or rail being used. When using rails, tapered casters wheels, v-shaped and u-shaped caster wheels are used. For the flat surfaces, flat caster wheels are employed and they can be padded ob tired. This is usually in a bid to reduce vibrations caused and damage to the surface or floor.
The caster construction material is primarily responsible for giving its chief properties that are strength and durability. Steel made casters are the ones most preferred when it comes to the heavy duty applications since they can provide required weight carrying capacity, mechanical strength. Therefore, one should look for the caster made from the materials that can service the purpose required.
One should also consider if the caster to buy is a swivel or rigid. Swiveling is the ability for the gear to rotate on its axis over a few degrees to a whole turn. Rigid casters are more likely to be used in the heavy duty applications since they provide much steady movements. The swiveling comes in handy in some applications since they help ease movement in cluttered space for they can make easy turns.
Caster fluttering is the rapid swaying sideways of the gear during movements. This oscillation can also be referred as shimmying. It occurs at certain critical speeds at which the wheels start to wobble. It is caused by weight and the distance between the axle and the steering axis or what is called trailing distance. A solution to this issue is getting the speed limits to the specific casters and its weight limits to avoid it going out of control when in use.
Long time operations and use of caster driven cars or carts can cause injurious effects to the user. Therefore, better research on improvement and enhancement has been one of the projects for the design engineers. This includes the improvement on caster wheel tires and padding, getting the best length of trailing offset to avoid fluttering, brakes and steering system to ease control. All these improvements are aimed to make the casters more efficient and effective in their applications.
Wheel diameter, size and their tandems affect the effectiveness and efficiency of the caster gear. The bigger the wheel diameter, the easier it gets for it to ride over uneven surfaces with the least effort and vibrations. One can also increase the weight carrying capacity by having tandems that tend to distribute the weight over bigger surface area.
Environmental conditions where a caster will be used also dictate the type of caster to buy. The type must be able to work with maximum efficiency with the least maintenance cost. In high temperatures and moist areas, any caster made of metal prone to rusting cannot be advised. In such areas, aluminum and thermal plastics that can stand high temperatures are more applicable. If there is chemical exposure, inert materials like plastics can be used to avoid casters made of reactive metals.
Also the type of caster wheels are dictated by the type of surface or rail being used. When using rails, tapered casters wheels, v-shaped and u-shaped caster wheels are used. For the flat surfaces, flat caster wheels are employed and they can be padded ob tired. This is usually in a bid to reduce vibrations caused and damage to the surface or floor.
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