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“What is the best industrial castor?” is one of the most commonly asked questions by our clients. The answer is: “it depends on several factors”, such as the activity it will be used for, the features we look for each castor and various external agents.
You will find below all the circumstances you need to consider when choosing your castors. We remind you that you can also contact our Ruedas Alex’s specialists to help and recommend you personally.
Heat resistance
It is important to take into account the ambient temperature and the frictional heat of the rolling. In extreme environments, such as steelworks, ovens and the food industry, it is necessary to use high temperature castors made of very strong resin or steel, able to withstand up to 280ºC.
The resistance of a wheel will be reduced considerably with temperatures close to the limits set for each model. When we go beyond this limit, the efficiency and the safety of the castor can be seriously affected.
Running noise
Soft tread wheels made of rubber or polyurethane are very quiet during the movement; moreover, they do not mark or damage the surface they move on. However, heavy duty castors with hard tread like cast iron wheels are stronger and more resistant but obviously noisier.
Using heavy duty wheels that do not leave marks on the floor brings the following advantages:
- They protect the floor from deformities
- They do not leave indentations or scratches
- They do not stain the surface and do not leave marks
- They do not leave any material residues on the floor
Rolling resistance
It is the force that must be applied to keep the load rolling steadily along. This resistance changes depending on factors such as the diameter of the wheel, the weather conditions, the weight, type of tread, floor condition and axle type. Soft tread wheels, such as the rubber ones have higher rolling resistance than a hard tread wheel, like the cast iron or nylon ones.
Weather influence
Temperature changes and humidity make the castor rust quickly. For wheels exposed to extreme environments, it is recommended to use a paint coating type, like the HLB, HLG or the stainless steel ZVI Series. If you need stainless steel water resistant castors, at Alex we have a huge variety of them.
Wheel diameter
The greater the diameter of the wheel, the lower the rolling resistance. Wheels used as regular means of transport must not be less than 100 mm. Smaller measures can be chosen in cases of low mobility and for small distances and light loads.
Difficulty and distance of the route
By knowing the average travelling distance and the floor difficulties, we will be able to recommend the ideal wheel diameter. The more difficulties there are to overcome, it is recommended to use a larger wheel diameter.
Floor type
We advise to use hard tread wheels for flats, hard and regular floors. Elastic rubber is suitable for uneven floors with bumps. Polyurethane is ideal for oil, grease, broken glass (abrasive floors), and the pneumatic castors are designed for soft floors or in bad conditions.
Load type
The fragility of the product we want to move will determine the castor to choose. In general, products can be moved with hard-tread wheels but for delicate products, soft tread wheels are recommended, this way, floor unevenness will be cushioned much better.
Handling
It is important to place the wheels in the right position so they have the required manoeuvrability for the type of work or machine we use:
- For long movements: 2 swivel castors + 2 fixed castors
- For short movements: 4 swivel castors
Now you already know how to choose the best industrial castor for your needs or your activity, we invite you to visit Ruedas Alex’s industrial castors catalogue, with more than 4.000 references.