CasterShoX® Helps Auto Manufacturer Meet OSHA Requirements.

Situation:

A large foreign auto manufacturer uses dollies to transport parts in one of their assembly plants. Pulled by a tugger in a five-dolly train, these carts were creating 95db of noise, 10db greater than OSHA recommendations of 85db for 8 hours of continuous exposure. At the current 95db, OSHA regulations limit operator exposure to 4 hours.

The auto manufacturer first tried traditional metal coil spring loaded casters as suggested by a different caster supplier. Though this brought the cart noise down to 86.7db(A), it did not achieve the goal established by the OSHA guidelines.

Solution:

While searching for a quieter solution, the manufacturer found Caster Concepts CasterShoX® product and decided to see if it would meet the goals of reducing cart noise.

In the end, two solutions were proposed and the results were stunning. The combination of changing to CasterShoX® and redesigning the tow hitch bar reduced noise levels to 67db(A), well below OSHA requirements. This solution was a 31% reduction from the initial situation and 23% better than a competitor’s product. The engineer in charge of this project for the manufacturer attributes most of the noise reduction due to CasterShoX® ability to stop vibration almost instantly.