What is a Toe Guard and how does it work?

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Corey Foust
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Inside Sales
Categories: Caster Accessories
May 2, 2022

A toe guard is a safety accessory that can be added to a caster.

Its main purpose is to protect people’s toes and feet. Toe Guards are typically produced as part of the metal caster rig, or what someone may also refer to as the bracket of the caster. They are then put into a steel press to bend and shape the steel to fit around the wheel that will later be placed inside the caster.

Toes guards are usually mounted at 1/2 inch off the floor to help protect workers’ feet from being rolled over and smashed. The guard can also accommodate different heights if necessary. This slightly raised height also allows for the wheel to roll and swivel freely without making contact on uneven surfaces.

Toe guards can be put on many different sizes of casters, along with many different wheel materials and size options within the caster rig. These are becoming a very popular feature for facilities that want to limit injury claims and the associated costs that come with them while improving overall safety in the workplace. They can also be a good fit in facilities that utilize AGV’s.

Toe Guard Materials

Steel toe guards are typically preinstalled on the caster during production. However, if a customer decides that they would like to install a toe guard retroactively on an already existing caster, that is accomplished with a demountable toe guard. In this case, the dimensions of the existing caster would be necessary. These measurements ensure that the demountable toe guard is the proper size for that particular installation.

There are also scenarios where a customer may not want a metal toe guard and prefers a softer material. In these rare cases, other materials such as plastic or nylon can be made to produce a toe guard. The advantage of a softer material is that it allows for the toe guard to take the damage from impacting a floor. Even if a floor is so uneven that it collides with the guard at times. This way there is limited, or no damage being done to the flooring from this impact.

If your application requires toe guards and you are going up a ramp, you’ll want to measure to be sure that the ramp is not on enough of an incline that it prevents the casters from being able to roll up it. The toe guard can also protect the caster itself from being damaged, or whatever the caster may be transporting.  Another purpose that a toe guard may be useful for is to keep the caster from rolling over some larger objects (think of it as a pseudo brush guard). This may allow for these larger objects to be pushed out of the way and keep the caster, wheel, or even possibly the material being moved from taking damage.