Jumat, 01 Januari 2016

Guides To Follow While Buying 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.

There many materials in the modern day material science field that bare hardness, strength and durability in making products. There many metal alloys and plastics capable of making casters for heavy duty works. It is therefore true that the better the mechanical properties of a material, the better the caster will be. A good example is steel that is both strong and durable and can therefore make a strong and durable caster.

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.

Ergonomic casters are custom designed to suit the environment and situation they are working in. Long time to exposure to resisting caster gear can cause straining injuries to the operators. Therefore, it is important for design improvement and enhancement to help reduce such injuries to the workers. Such improvements include addition of brakes and steering to help in controls, putting toe guards to avoid the caster from running over peoples feet.

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.

There are several types of caster wheels found in the market. They are each specific to the surface of use. For example, a flat caster is to be used in flat surfaces. If there is flooring, the caster gear need to be padded or have tires. The tapered, v-shaped and u-shaped casters are used in railings. They provide movement in a straight line following the rails to move objects or carts.




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