Shock Absorbing Casters and Wheels
Your car has all sorts of components to absorb the shock and vibration of the road. Why should your casters and industrial wheels be any different? When you are transporting delicate or sensitive cargo on your carts or dollies, you need to reduce the vibration and shock from rolling across rough surfaces to protect that equipment. Depending on the size and nature of your application, there are a few ways to do this.
1. Soft / Cushioned Wheels
Your wheels are the first line of defense against rough terrain, because they are in direct contact with that terrain. There is a wide range of sizes and options to get more forgiving wheels. There are various forms of rubber, neoprene, and air-filled (pneumatic) wheels that can greatly reduce vibration by absorbing shock before it is transferred to your cart and equipment. One of our favorites here is the flat-free wheel, which performs (and appears) very similarly to a pneumatic wheel, but without the maintenance of having to be filled with air regularly. These 8″ x 2″ flat free wheels are super soft, while still maintaining durability:
2. Spring-Loaded Casters
There is a fairly large selection of spring-loaded casters to help absorb shock from both the floor/ground as well as from anything being dropped or placed on top of the cart or dolly. Most spring-loaded casters have additional “floating” legs that can pivot on the caster’s primary legs. These floating legs are attached to springs at one of their ends, and the caster wheel at the opposite end, with the pivot point located in between the two. Typically, this style of spring-loaded caster is geared more towards heavy duty applications such as shock sensitive carts, aircraft jacks, medical and computer equipment, and heavy duty toolboxes. The caster below has an 8″ x 2″ neoprene on aluminum wheel and is rated for 500 lbs.
3. Impact Resistant Casters
These casters are designed more to handle impact from the picking up and putting down of a cart itself, or for impact from dropping heavy equipment onto the top of a dolly or cart. They use a heavy duty kingpinless swivel frame that can handle more impact and abuse than a standard swivel caster frame. They also have a high-impact nylon wheel with oversized precision ball bearings to add to the impact-resistance of the caster, as well as increase overall weight capacity to 2,000 lbs in a 4″ x 2″ caster (shown below).
So as you can see, carefully selecting the right casters for your application can have a huge impact (pun intended) on performance and longevity of your equipment and your casters themselves. As always, we are here to help you make that selection, so give us a call at 1-800-325-2753, EMAIL US HERE, or stop by our Richmond, VA showroom.
