Caster Concepts Logo

Increasing a Cart’s Load Capacity While Reducing Push Force.

Situation:

The devil is in the details. In this case, our client was able to save millions of dollars by installing an ergonomically designed wheel that allowed full cart capacity.

An American automobile manufacturer’s stamping plant was having problems with load capacity.  The initial push force on their carts cannot exceed 44 lbs.  per union guidelines. In reality, a fully-loaded rack weighing 2000 lbs. had an average push force of 51 lbs. This meant the carts could only be loaded at 80% capacity in order to meet the 44 lbs. initial push force requirement.  This lowered productivity by 20% and was costing the plant and plants it supplies millions of dollars annually.

The auto manufacturer found Caster Concepts while searching online for a solution to reduce the initial push force of the wheeled racks.

Solution:

The company installed Caster Concepts’ ERGOXCEL Series 57 rigs and TWERGO™ 8” x 2” wheels with an ErgoTread polyurethane tread. The switch in casters was a major success. The TWERGO® wheels and ERGOXCEL rigs allowed for full cart capacity while reducing the initial push force to 39 lbs. of pressure. This was 5 lbs. less than the maximum allowed push force. Now the racks can be loaded with even greater capacity while still achieving the maximum allowed push force.