Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Learn About Stainless Steel Casters

By Grace Rivas


Stainless steel casters refer to certain undriven, single, double, or compound wheels designed for mounting on the base of larger object also called the vehicle. Their primary purpose is to make the movement of the vehicle they are mounted on easier. They can be made of other materials such as plastic, nylon, rubber, and aluminium besides stainless steel. Some models combine different materials.

These commodities have a many applications in many different places. Some the areas where they are utilized include on theater and health equipment, material handling equipment, office chairs, and shopping carts among numerous others. Heavy duty, high capacity versions are applied in industrial applications for several uses such as tow lines in firms, assemblies, and platform trucks. They are known to work best on flat and smooth surfaces.

Stainless steel casters appear in a variety of makes including braking and locking, swivel, and rigid wheels. A caster may be mounted in a manner as to roll on a straight path. In such a case, they are mounted on a stationary point whose direction does not change. Some models are fixed onto a pivot so that they change direction automatically to align themselves in the direction of movement.

Rigid makes consist of wheels which are fixed onto stationary forks. Orientation of forks is decided at the time when a caster is being mounted on a vehicle. Usually fork orientation is relative to objects they are mounted onto. Rigid models tend to confine vehicle motion so that the vehicles move only on straight trails. The wheels usually oppose any changes in route of motion and might require application of some force in order for that to occur.

A swivel caster is same as a rigid caster in every way with one simple modification incorporated to the joint right over the fork. The added swivel joint permits the fork to rotate freely through three hundred and sixty degrees. This lets the wheel to revolve in all directions therefore making it simpler to move the body vehicle in all 4 directions without modifying its orientation.

Some casters include a braking mechanism to prevent vehicles from moving or turning. The braking mechanism is attained by use of a lever which presses against a brake cam. The brake cam in turn presses against the wheel stopping it from turning. Modern models have a braking mechanism that prevent all wheels from turning at once unlike old ones where someone had to move around locking each one of them individually.

Flutter is a key drawback on any caster. Flutter is the rapid side to side swinging movement of a single wheel during motion. This condition happens at certain speeds relying on the amount of mass the wheels are supporting and the length from the steering axes to the wheel axles.

Distance between steering wheel and wheel axle is referred to as trailing velocity and increasing the distance may remove flutter at moderate speeds. Stainless steel casters can be bought from any store around the world. Spoilt wheels can be replaced with new ones or can be repaired.




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