Selecting Industrial Casters to Meet Your Needs

Industrial casters come in many shapes, sizes, and styles—how do you pick the best type for your particular demands? Here are some factors to consider as you shop around:

• Load Capacity: While all industrial casters are designed to move heavy burdens with ease, some can withstand more weight than others. Make sure you know both the empty load weight of the instrument the casters will be going on and the maximum weight capacity to be transported. Depending on the application, you may need to increase the number of wheels or upgrade to a heavier-duty style.
• Bearing Types: Casters come in many different bearing types, including ball bearing, roller bearing, plain bearing, and tapered bearing. All have their advantages and disadvantages, so you’ll want to do your research to determine the style that is right for your application.
• Wheel Application: Some wheels are designed to go fast; others are designed to go slow. The speed of your operation will determine whether you should pick high-speed single flange wheels or slow-speed double-flanged wheels.
• Materials and Dimensions: The materials used and dimensions of industrial casters vary widely. Will your casters have to withstand extreme temperatures? Will they be fitted to a rail track? Talk to an expert about these considerations and many more to determine the ideal design for your product.

Why Heavy-Duty Casters are In Demand

It’s no secret that heavy-duty casters keep industry in motion. But what—or, rather, who—is keeping casters in demand? While casters are used in hundreds of applications all around the world, China is the primary driver behind the product’s continued growth. In particular, China’s demand for steel is raising the demand for heavy-duty casters.

China has undergone rapid industrial growth over the previous decades, and it is projected to continue its high-speed development for another 10 to 20 years. The nation has recently approved dozens of major infrastructure projects, including its famous Belt and Road Initiative to greatly expand road and rail transportation across landlocked Central Asia and strategically invest in its maritime economy along Indo-Pacific sea routes. These projects call for numerous new ports, skyscrapers, railroads, roads, airports, dams, and railroad tunnels—all of which require steel.

The growth of the demand for steel in China was about 3% in 2017, and that demand will grow steadily over the next decade. China is the world’s number one steel consumer and producer. Of the top ten largest individual crude steel producers in 2020, seven of the companies were Chinese. All that steel needs to get moved somehow, and heavy-duty casters are the solution.