Casters

How to select the right industrial caster.

Selecting an industrial caster can be overwhelming. For most, the biggest challenge is where to start!

Step 1: Calculating the caster’s capacity

Calculating the caster’s capacity. It’s important to know how much weight your caster can hold. Which also mean know the weight of your cart. For safety, we suggest estimating the total cart load over three casters to ensure adequate support. When you’re dealing with uneven floor conditions, you can assume not all casters are contacting the floor. So, ensuring that the load can be supported by three out of the four casters allows for adequate safety.

Step 2: Understanding the application.

Answering a few questions can help you determine the best caster for your situation. Such as, are there height or width limitations? If so, you may need to use a dual wheel caster which offers the highest possible capacity at the lowest overall height. Do you need to protect the floor, or is the floor uneven or rough? Our polyurethane treads and our spring-loaded casters are designed for a variety of these types of conditions. What about push force – do you need to get the initial force under a certain push force weight? Our ergonomic casters include maintenance-free rigs with precision tapered roller bearings and tapered treads that minimize the wheel’s surface area and reduce push force.

Step 3: Selecting your casters

Once capacity and the application are understood, caster selection is next. Once you have a better idea of the caster you need based on your answers to the questions above, now comes decisions on specific caster type, such as if you need a spring-loaded caster, or what type of swivel section you need. The standard swivel sections are kingpin, kingpinless, and maintenance free. You would rarely select a kingpin caster unless you have a well-planned maintenance program or a unique application. The most common option would be a kingpinless caster which covers most of your applications. The third type, maintenance free, is best for ease of movement and eliminating routine maintenance.

Step 4: Selecting your wheel

Selecting your wheel is next. This step is heavily influenced by your application. For high-temperature settings, steel or high temp plastic casters are best. If maintaining floor conditions is priority 1, you will want a softer material like polyurethane. For ease of movement is important, consider our Twergo or balloon tread and our TR 95A or PTMEG Ergo tread polyurethane. For heavier loads, you can use a larger polyurethane wheel. And to keep the overall height down, steel and Nytec caster wheels handle heavier loads in a smaller size.

For a more in depth guide on selecting your caster wheel, click here.

Step 5: Caster Ad-ons

Choosing your options. Caster add-ons such as brakes, swivel locks, and toe guards are also options to consider. Brakes lock the wheels in place to prevent the caster from rolling. Swivel locks will lock the swivel section in place to help maneuverability. Toe guards wrap around the caster to prevent injuries from rolling over the operator’s feet.