Types of Casters and Wheels

A caster is a device that goes through the center of a wheel and then attaches to a piece of equipment. Even though it is a device with a caster and a wheel, most refer to them as simply casters. Casters allow heavy loads to be moved with relative ease and come in many different types. Some examples are toolbox casters, furniture casters, suitcase casters, and food service tray casters. Here are the different types of casters and wheels.

Plate Mounted Casters

These casters have a plate that attaches to the container. They can be rigid and not move or they can swivel for ease of operation. These can be used on loads of any weight and are suitable for heavy loads. Uses include industrial equipment, conveyors, and tow lines.

Stem Mounted Casters

Instead of a plate, these have a stem that swivels to allow rotation and movement in any direction. Some of the stems are round with threads and some are square. They are chosen for the lighter weight loads and cannot support really heavy loads. Examples are office chairs, mop buckets, and furniture.

Caster Wheels

Casters can have one or two wheels or even more and some have balls instead of wheels. There are five main types of caster wheels:

Metal Wheels - Some caster wheels are made of metal which can be stainless steel, forged steel, cast iron, or ductile iron.

Plastic Wheels - These are easy to roll, resist chemicals and protect the flooring.

Polyurethane Wheels - These will last longer than rubber wheels. They are quiet when rolling and protect the flooring.

Rubber Wheels - Since they cushion well, these wheels work well on rough surfaces. They are also quiet and protect the flooring.

Track Wheels - These can be either V-grooved or flanged. They are good for heavy loads, roll easily, and protect the flooring.

How to Select the Right Caster Wheel

If you have mobile equipment in your business, it is important to select the right caster for the job. steel caster wheels are one type but sometimes the wheel center is made of aluminum, plastic, rubber, nylon, iron, or polyurethane. The type of caster will depend on several factors, like weight of the equipment and the condition of the floor. Here are some things to consider when choosing a caster wheel.

Stainless

Weight of the Load

It stands to reason that the heavier the load, the larger the caster wheel should be. Roller or ball bearings need to be used for loads over 400 pounds. Companies that sell casters will be able to advise you on the type of caster you will need.

Condition of the Floor

When picking caster wheels, consider the type of floor you have and its condition. If the floor is uneven with a lot of cracks, choose a larger caster wheel. Rubber and polyurethane are suitable on any type of floor whereas steel wheels are suited for concrete and smooth steel floors.

Ease of Rolling

A wheel with a large diameter will roll easier than smaller ones. Ball bearings roll easily but cannot handle heavy loads. Roller bearings can accommodate heavier loads. Pick bigger casters for heavier loads.

Climate

Extreme temperatures can affect the performance of the caster. High temperatures can cause rubber and polyurethane casters to soften and flatten, reducing their ability to roll and increasing the risk of an accident. Heat can also affect the grease between ball bearings so that it leaks out, making the caster more difficult to roll. Extreme cold will also require casters made of certain materials.

Other Considerations

Acid, oil, and some chemicals can damage rubber. In this situation, you need to pick another type of caster wheel.  Also, moisture can damage caster wheels. If moisture is present, choose materials that can withstand moisture. Finally, if there is a lot of dirt in the environment, choose wheels with sealed bearings.

How to Make Work More Efficient for Your Hotel Staff

When it comes to running a hotel, there often doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day for your staff to clean rooms, provide room service and get everything they need done. With so much on your to-do list, some simple fixes to the equipment your hotel staff uses may be overlooked. Make your employees’ jobs easier and your guests will benefit from their more efficient service.

Replace Cart Wheels

A quality steel caster wheel is less likely to wear down and will offer your cart operators a smooth experience. Consider all of the carts and other equipment with wheels that your staff uses at the hotel. There are the room service carts to push deluxe meals and the housekeeping carts to haul cleaning supplies and laundry. There are also baggage carts and trash cans. They all get a lot of use. Replace the wheels and they won’t get stuck or tip over because of worn-down edges.

Add or Replace Floor Locks

All it takes is a child running down the hall to send a cart full of cleaning supplies or food flying. Install cart locks on every cart your hotel staff uses so they can safely secure a cart in one location as they work without worrying about it being moved. If you already have locks, make sure they work and replace those that are worn down.

Add Cart Bumpers

Hotel staff often maneuvers carts through tight corridors, elevators, and crowds of guests. Bumpers will make cart operation safer both for your employees and your guests and it will reduce the damage done to the hotel by carts accidentally bumping doors and walls.

Discuss the types of carts and other equipment you use at your hotels with an Access Casters representative. You may be surprised to learn how a stock of replacement casters on hand can make everything from room service to trash collection much easier for your employees. Replacing cart wheels is far less expensive than replacing entire carts.

3 Reasons to Stock Up on Replacement Pallet Jack Wheels

Many factories, warehouses, and shipment centers rely on pallet jacks to move large loads from one corner of the building to another or even to stack loads vertically for storage to create more space. Businesses in a multitude of industries rely on their pallet jacks more than they might realize. That’s one of the many reasons why it’s essential you keep a stock of pallet jack wheels on hand.

It Makes Fixing Pallet Jacks Faster

The most durable pallet jack wheels should last you quite some time, even when the equipment gets frequent use. However, when one wheel gets loose, loses tread or cracks, you want to be able to fix it as quickly as possible. Having a stock of wheels on hand allows you to get the jack up and running within minutes.

It’s Affordable

Replacing the wheels is always more affordable than replacing the wheeled equipment entirely. No matter how tight your budget, you can afford to keep a stock of replacement wheels on hand for your pallet jacks. They may even be cheaper if you purchase them in bulk.

You May Be Getting an Upgrade

The wheels your pallet jacks came with may not have been the most durable and robust wheels available. Some wheels offer better traction, which results in a less bumpy ride, so it’s worth changing the wheels even before the original ones wear out. Look into materials such as polyurethane with and without cast iron cores when looking to upgrade your pallet jack usage.

An Access Casters representative would be happy to help you pick out the right size and material for your pallet jacks. They can also assist you with equipping the other carts and wheeled equipment at your company, such as your hand trucks, dollies, and trash cans, so everything operates at maximum efficiency.

3 Ways to Reduce Scratches on Your Store Floor

If you own a business like a grocery store or general store that seems a lot of traffic, there are bound to be scratches and scuffs on your linoleum or tile floors. Custodians can buff some out, but it takes a lot less time and money if you do what you can to prevent or reduce these scratches to begin with. While you can’t control what shoes your customers will wear, you can protect your flooring.

Purchase Pneumatic Wheels

Replace the wheels in your store with pneumatic wheels, which are durable, air-filled casters that are less likely to scratch your floors. Start with the shopping carts your customers rely on and then move on to every other cart that touches your store’s floors, such as the carts your employees use for stocking and the carts your custodians use to transport janitorial supplies.

Buy Floor Locks

Your stocking carts and janitorial carts should all have floor locks added so your employees can park the carts securely where they need them as they work without worrying about bumping into them and jostling the items atop the cart. The less the cart moves unnecessarily, the less wear and tear they’ll cause to the flooring.

No Heels or Rubber Sole Shoes

You can’t and shouldn’t try to police what your customers wear into your store, but you can reduce the damaging scuff marks caused by high heels and rubber sole shoes by requiring your employees at least to wear shoes less likely to cause damage. They spend the most time on your floors, anyway.

Talk to an Access Casters representative for more information on outfitting your shopping carts, stocking carts, janitorial carts and other carts with the best parts to reduce scuffs and scratches. It’s too expensive to replace all of these carts entirely, but it’s quite affordable to just swap out the casters. Buy in bulk so you can quickly replace any that get damaged.

How to Make Rearranging Your Furniture Showroom Easier

In the furniture business, there isn’t room to let one furniture set collect dust. The objective is to sell

the latest furniture while it’s still hot and then shuffle those display items to the clearance section in the back when the newest designs come in. However, moving furniture in a showroom is a time-consuming, back-breaking effort for your staff. Make it simpler and you’ll save time — and your employees will thank you.

Invest in Casters

Purchase furniture casters to make moving all of the large pieces — beds, dressers, cabinets, chairs, etc. — as easy as can be. You can leave them on some of the displays, like a bed, or you can invest in furniture dollies and low-to-the-ground carts that you slide under the pieces when it’s time to move. (So the casters don’t give the display pieces additional height and make shoppers think the pieces are taller than they are.)

Get Floor Locks

While casters make moving large pieces of furniture across the store floor simpler, you don’t want would-be buyers to bump into the furniture and send it moving across the display space. Floor locks make sure the pieces stay steadily in place once you’ve arranged them where you want them and it’s simple to unlock the wheels whenever you’re ready to shift things around.

Plan Ahead

Sketch out how you want one area of the display to look like so you know exactly what set of furniture you need where and you don’t waste time moving the pieces from one side of the display to the other as you contemplate the best design.

Discuss all of your large item moving needs with an Access Casters representative. In addition to wheels for your furniture display items, you might want to invest in carts to transport the smaller furnishings all at once. Furniture sales depend on beautiful displays. Make arranging displays much easier with casters on your store’s large furnishings. 

Casters Help Make Materials Handling Safer

There are usually a number of challenges that are faced in the industrial industry, including issues involved with materials handling. In order to make sure that materials are handled in a safe and efficient manner, a variety of aspects need to be considered, including the type of casters used to move materials about.

How can casters help make it safer to handle materials in the industrial industry? There are plenty of advantages that come with the implementation and use of industrial casters when it comes to materials handling:

Reduce Overexertion

Handling material — especially heavy and awkward-shaped items—- can be a challenge without some assistance, namely, in the form of casters. These seemingly small and understated components can do wonders to dramatically reduce injuries that result from overexertion of the muscles and joints. 

Increase Productivity

Since casters allow materials to be handled more efficiently and quickly, productivity of workers can be significantly increased and improved. Downtime can be reduced in the workplace, which translates into less money wasted in lost time.

Protect Employees

Health and safety in the workplace is very important, and must always be a priority, and a big focus on this is in noise reduction. With the proper caster in place to suit specific applications, any level of noise caused by hard wheels can be effectively reduced. 

Protect Material

Products in the workplace can be very expensive. Yet plenty of money can be lost if materials prematurely reach their end of life as a result of inadequate handling. Casters help avoid this situation, and help ensure that materials last as long as they possibly can.

Reduce Caster Changeover Rates

With high-quality, low-maintenance casters, there are drastically fewer changeovers that need to take place, thereby also reducing costs. By implementing casters that feature self-contained grease and seal caps, the changeover rate can be significantly improved.

For all your caster product needs, contact the experts at Access Casters today.