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.

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.

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.

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.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment