Workers can injure themselves when they lift, carry, and/or push objects. They may need to take days off to recover or sue you for improper safety practices if they do. In either case, your business can lose profits.
One way to prevent such injuries is to use carts with high-quality swivel caster wheels. However, you may not know how to choose which of these are best for your business’ carts. If so, read on to learn more about some of the different types of swivel casters.
What Are Swivel Casters?
A caster is a type of mechanism that usually gets affixed to the bottom of a cart, chair, or another device. Its most basic form consists of a wheel and a mount. There are, however, several forms that can have more than one wheel.
In addition, companies such as LINCO offer several varieties of casters. To start with, these all fall under two major groupings: rigid and swivel. What differentiates these from each other is how their mounts function.
The mount of a swivel caster lets a caster swivel, or turn, three hundred and sixty degrees in either direction. This makes it easier for workers to turn carts as they push them.
In contrast, the mounts of rigid casters cannot swivel. Thus, they can only move in straight lines.
What Are Some Swivel Caster Types?
Casters also differ from each other based on shapes, sizes, abilities, and materials. Some will also be better than others at carrying heavier loads, working in certain environments, and so on.
How do the swivel caster wheels heavy duty work requires differ from lighter duty ones? Casters made for carrying hundreds of pounds are often bigger and may have two wheels instead of one. It’s also likely that manufacturers have made them from stronger metals like steel.
Finally, some abilities between casters depend on included or not included parts. Workers can immobilize the wheel in a swivel caster with a brake at will. If a swivel caster has a lock, workers can stop the mount from turning.
You will also notice differences in the shapes of heavy duty casters’ parts. Some casters will have a “kingpin.” This is a long rivet and bolt that attaches a mouth to the bottom of a cart.
Unfortunately, these features can be rather weak. For this reason, it’s common to use kingpinless casters for heavier lifting.
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You can also learn more from the swivel casters’ descriptions. These should explain the situations each caster is suited for.
Caster manufacturers should also have customer service lines. If you call these and ask questions, you should get some helpful expert advice.
Are you in the mood for more useful information? Check out the hundreds of other articles we have available on our site. You won’t just learn more about casters, but also travel, marketing, and so much more.
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