The Most Important Uses of Light Quality Casters (and the 3 Places You’ll Find Them)
Light quality casters, or - consumer-grade casters are smaller and have a lower load-bearing than the more heavy-duty, or commercial, casters.
You may not have even noticed how many pieces of equipment and furniture around your home or workplace employ these versatile ‘wheels.’
There are, in fact, quite many common and important uses for casters today. Before we take a look at the most important uses of light quality casters (and the three places you’ll find them), we’ll talk about why they’re so helpful today!
What Are the Benefits of Casters?
Casters provide the perfect solution to moving heavy or bulky objects.
Casters are a kind of wheel that is mounted inside a housing unit with a unique bearing race to ensure 360-degree rotation, meaning any object equipped with casters can easily be pushed in any direction.
The angles of the bearing race and axle can be adjusted according to the expected performance of the caster. These types of casters are known as ‘swivel casters.’ Casters that have a rigid housing and only go in one direction are called ‘fixed casters.’
Some benefits include:
● Mobility
Adding casters to furniture enables ease of movement from place to place, reducing the chance of injury by moving heavy or awkwardly sized furniture.
● Convenience
It is extremely easy to work with casters. Designed to provide maximum support with the
least resistance means no more heavy lifting or straining a muscle from pushing furniture around. Casters take the pressure and stress out of it for you.
● Saves Time
Moving furniture or objects with casters takes much less time than lifting it on your own.
● The Range of Casters
Casters come in different sizes and materials to suit any situation. Plate-mounted casters are more suitable for transporting heavy loads, while swivel casters are perfect for shopping carts and office chairs.
Different materials are designed for particular temperatures, working around chemicals and transporting fragile loads. Caster material can include cast iron, plastic, rubber, forged steel, polyurethane, polyolefin, nylon, thermoplastic rubber, stainless steel, and aluminum.
Casters larger in size are used to reduce the effort required to move heavy objects, including machinery and equipment that weighs more than you can move.
Casters smaller in size are suitable for light and compact (everyday) objects.
● Strength and Durability
Particularly useful in industrial applications, casters can support up to 100,000 lbs and are built to last. These industrial casters support the equipment while reducing resistance to assist with moving.
Where Will I Find Casters?
At the Office
Office Chairs
If you’re sitting in an office chair as you read this, you’ll notice casters at the base of your chair. These casters allow you to zip from the computer, to a nearby filing cabinet or drawer or over to the phone easily and quickly.
Filing Cabinets
Once a filing cabinet is full of paperwork, it can become cumbersome and awkward to move. Casters mean easy transportation without any heavy lifting.
Around the House
Entertainment Centers
Despite the advancements in technology, televisions can still be heavy. Due to their large size and weight, they can be cumbersome to move between rooms, not to mention DVD players, set-top boxes and whatever else you want to store. Add to that all the cables and attached gadgets; it can become a chaotic and annoying process.
Using light duty casters takes the frustration out of moving, not just at home, but also in offices, hospitals, or schools.
Travel Luggage
The addition of swivel casters on luggage has made traversing airports, train stations, and the streets much easier.
Coffee Tables
Gone are the days when it would take two people to move a coffee table. Modern tables are equipped with casters, allowing them to be moved to make more space as needed.
Kitchen Islands
Many older homes have fixed kitchen islands, but nowadays more people are opting for portable or rollable kitchen islands with casters, allowing them to be moved easily or stowed away when not in use.
The Medical World
Hospital Beds & Surgical Tables
This equipment needs the flexibility to be moved quickly, easily, and with no discomfort to the patient.
Machines & Equipment Carts
The difference between life and death is how quickly life-saving machinery can reach a patient. Swivel casters allow carts and machines to be moved quickly and quietly through hospital corridors as needed.
Specially designed casters are used to ensure the ultimate in safety, reliability, ease of motion, shock absorption, and maneuverability for:
● Ultrasound Equipment
● Mobile X-ray Machines
● Anesthesia Carts
● Medical Monitors
● Critical Care Carts
● Operating Room Carts
● IV Poles
● MRIs
How to Choose the Right Type of Caster?
Many factors need to be taken into consideration before choosing casters.
These factors include:
Load Capacity
The potential load capacity must be calculated to avoid damaging the casters or the load, not to mention the possibility of causing bodily harm.
Floor Type
For cushioned or carpeted surfaces, soft floor casters must be used. Conversely, for hard surfaces, such as concrete floors, softer material casters need to be used.
Floor Surface and Condition
The kind of surface the casters will be used on needs to be taken into consideration, whether there are cracks, bumps, debris, or even gravelly surfaces.
Environment
Specific casters are available for frigid or extremely hot environments. Casters that have low starting and rolling resistance should be used.
Now that you have a better understanding of the most important uses of light quality casters (and three places you’ll find them), you can see that casters make our lives much easier by removing the need for heavy lifting.
If you’re looking for more information on casters, head over to our blog page and read through our range of informative articles.
Ready to buy casters? Head over to our store to choose the casters to suit your job.
At CoolYeah, we are your caster masters. Our casters meet the highest standards of quality in terms of design, manufacturing, and function.
Built to withstand the harshest environments while continuing to work faultlessly, we guarantee you’ll be 100% satisfied with our casters, and our service.
Have a question? Contact us here, because we would love to help you.