Monday, January 15, 2018

Choose the Correct Heavy Duty Wheels for Your Industrial Caster and Wheel Applications

Choose the Correct Heavy Duty Wheels for your Industrial Caster and Wheel Applications


We have talked about how heavy duty casters can provide an amazing benefit in your heavy material handling transporting and moving equipment.  I consider heavy duty wheels to be 1,200# capacity to about 40,000# capacity.  However if you do not have the correct wheels for moving these heavy items you will have nothing but problems.  Some of the issues you may encounter when using an under rated capacity wheel include:  wheel breaking or flattening, bearings busting out of the wheel, using incorrect wheel material which can damage the floor.  All of these scenarios can cause a catastrophic failure of the casters and cart that you are moving the equipment on resulting in possible damage and injury to operators…. Not to mention the job will not get done.  Therefore, let’s see what factors we need to consider when choosing the correct heavy duty wheel for moving heavy equipment.  At www.heavy-dutycaster.com we list the size of the wheels and wheel options, and capacity to help you choose the best wheel for your heavy duty caster application.   
(1)  Know the weight you will be pushing, pulling, towing, or moving.
(2)  Know the type of floor and the condition of the floor you are rolling the wheels.
(3)  Are you manually pushing or pulling the cart?  Or are you using a tugger or towing the cart?
(4) Do you have harsh environments the wheels will be exposed to?
(5) How tall can you go?  What size diameter and width wheel can you use?
We offer over 40 different styles of heavy-duty wheels. Our wheels come in many different diameters, tread widths, colors, and capacities. Specific wheels provide floor protection, high heat applications, wash down, chemical resistance, and more. Our wheels come with a variety of bearings such as: roller bearings, tapered roller bearings, precision ball bearings, stainless steel bearings, delrin and bronze bearings, and oilex bearings. Specific wheels feature flat tread, crowned tread, donut tread with different durometers and hardness. Wheels available: phenolic wheels, high temp wheels, hard and soft rubber wheels, thermoplastic rubber wheels, polyurethane wheels, elastomer wheels, cast iron steel wheels, ductile steel wheels, drop forged steel wheels, semi-pneumatic wheels, rubber on cast iron and poly on cast iron wheels, poly on aluminum wheels, v-groove wheels and others.           

Wheel selection and wheel bearings are another very important factor when selecting heavy duty casters.  The larger the wheel the easier it will be to get started rolling and keep rolling, especially over rough terrain or uneven floors and thresh holds.  Heavy duty casters usually start with a 6” diameter wheel however even a 3” diameter wheel can be used in heavy duty casters when a low profile is needed.  6” x 3” up to 16” – 4” wide wheels are commonly used.  Different types of wheel material is also very important.  Steel wheels and ductile steel and forged steel wheels give you the most carrying capacity but can be rough on floors.  Heavy duty polyurethane on cast iron wheels can give wonderful floor protection and still yield a great capacity.  High impact polymer wheels and Ergolastomer wheels work great in many applications.  We can use standard straight roller bearings in these wheels but the best wheel bearings for heavy duty applications are precision sealed ball bearings, and tapered roller bearings.  The precision ball bearings and tapered roller bearings allow for an easier start and better roll with less force and also will withstand towing.  The larger the wheel the heavier the axle as well.
                                                                 
Let me know if you have an application for heavy duty casters in your industrial or commercial material handling applications.  We can help and we keep the very best in stock!
www.pstrouth.com                                  phil@pstrouth.com           

www.heavy-dutycaster.com                           phil@heavy-dutycaster.com 
 

2 comments: