Top 10 Questions Asked for Industrial Casters

1. WHY CAN’T I FIND MY PART NUMBER ON YOUR WEBSITE?

On our website, you’re going to find standard part numbers. We consider these catalog items. If you have a part number that starts with an SP or an SPD, this means that it’s a custom product designed for a specific customer. If you have that number, you’re not going to find it on the website. Please contact us, so we can answer the questions that you have. Another common misconception is looking at a number on the wheel and thinking that is the part number. That wheel number is not the final part number — that is the wheel casting number. However, if you give us that with a few other details, we can usually tell you what product you have.

2. HOW DO I CHOOSE A CASTER?

The first thing I tell people to do is take your total load divide it by three. You might say “Why three if I have four casters?” Well, three points make a plane, and I don’t care how perfect your floors are or how perfect your fabrication is, there’s usually variation in the manufacturing process in your floor. That means only three casters will sometimes end up carrying the load, so that’s why we tell people just to be safe divide by three

The second thing to do is look at how you will use the caster. Is it being manually pushed around, or are you towing? These applications have different characteristics that factor into which caster you choose. Third, you want to consider any environmental concerns, such as temperature. Also, is it outside, or is it going into an oven? Do I have access to grease the caster? You want to consider these things when specifying a caster for your application.

3. CAN I GET A SPECIFIC BOLT HOLE, MOUNTING PATTERN, OR HEIGHT?

Can I specify a bolt-hole or mounting pattern for a specific overall height? What about shortening the swivel radius to fit underneath my cart? The answer to all these questions is YES! We can customize pretty much any product we make and do it easily and quickly.

4. ARE YOUR CASTERS DESIGNED TO ICWM STANDARDS?

The aerospace industry usually gets this question because they seek specific safety factors. Our industrial casters are designed and tested to ICWM (International Caster and Wheel Manufacturing Association) standards. For reference, all of our casters are designed with a four-time safety factor on static loads. If you need a different safety factor, we can run the finite element analysis and the stress analysis to figure out how we need to change the design to get you the safety factor that you need.

5. MY CASTERS KEEP FAILING OR BREAKING. CAN YOU HELP?

In the majority of cases, the answer is yes. This depends on your design constraints and what you’re trying to do. If you’re trying to push a cart off the back of a semi and the casters keep breaking off, we can probably help you out but some applications are pretty tough.

6. HOW LONG WILL MY CASTERS LAST?

This is a very difficult question because it depends on the type of caster used, the application, and how well it’s maintained. We’ve had casters in the field for 50-plus years that still work just as well as the day they left the factory because the application wasn’t abusive, and they maintained the casters very well. We’ve also had applications where the wheel will wear down in six months, and they’ll have to replace the wheel because it’s a very aggressive application with a lot of turning involved, typically forklift applications or things like that.

For the most part, if your application isn’t too abusive and you maintain the product well you should expect years of life out of your casters. if you know you have an abusive application, we can work with you to get the longest life possible out of your casters.

7. HOW DO YOU MAKE MY CART EASIER TO MOVE?

This is a very popular question that we’ve been asked within the last 10 years. it involves improving the swivel section, improving the urethane and the wheel design. If you have a cart that’s hard to move or it’s not passing your internal safety standards, contact us — we can talk about the application and then we can figure out what’s the right products to try. We’ve done alot of internal testing and we have our own database of results that we can share with you to help show you kind of what direction you should be going to to really make your cart easier to move.

8. WHAT DOES A CASTER COST?

This varies widely depending on your application, your load capacity, and what you’re trying to do . Where we’ve tried to simplify this for you is if you go to our website and you pull up a specific SKU, you can actually see ranges of costs and what determines these ranges, such as the different add-ons and options.

These would include swivel locks, brakes, toe guards, and different types of urethanes. Those really are the factors that can determine that range of cost. For very customized applications, you could get into things like customized wheel cores and custom swivel sections, which are options that can dramatically change the cost of a caster. Consult with our factory engineers to determine what you need and if it really fits your budget.

9. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET MY CASTER ONCE I ORDER IT?

Our average lead time is around two weeks which can change depending on the complexity of the caster and the number of purchased goods involved. But, in general, our lead times are two weeks or less, and we’ve built our manufacturing systems to allow us to handle a high variation in the type of product as well as quantity. With a vertically integrated manufacturing process, we control the entire process, from the cutting of steel to the pouring of urethane, and that’s what allows us to be able to customize your product and still deliver in a pretty short lead time.

10. WHAT SAFETY FACTOR IS IN THE DESIGN OF YOUR CASTER?

We design to the ICWM standards, so for static it’s four to one safety factor and for dynamic it’s two to one. If you require something different contact us. You can work with our engineering team and we can get you what you need in terms of safety factor.

If you still have questions, you can check out our learning center for more information, or feel free to reach out to us.

Top 10 most commonly asked questions when trying to spec industrial casters.