wheels – Service Caster Corporation Blog

What Is Semi Steel?

If you’re looking for an industrial or heavy duty caster, you’ve no doubt come across the term Semi Steel. And, unless you’ve got a background in metallurgy, chances are you’re not sure what it is.

As it turns out, semi steel is actually a type of cast iron, with steel scrap thrown in the mixture for good measure. In fact, most semi-steel has quite a bit of steel scrap in it. The result is an alloy that is excellent for use as casters, for a variety of reasons. Semi steel features easy castability, low cost, and machinability, just as cast iron does. It also has added strength, impact resistance, and ductility from the steel. This makes semi-steel a perfect balance of cost effective strength for many medium and heavy duty casters.

Service Caster Videos

The caster pros at Service Caster are now producing videos, offering another format for users to gather information from the world of casters and wheels. These videos will offer all sorts of demonstrations and how-to’s from a real life perspective, and are made by actual Service Caster sales reps and employees. These videos are specifically made by us for you to deal with the most common issues that come up.

You can find the video collection at our Video page. At the moment these videos include “How to Replace a Grip Ring Stem,” “How to Measure a Caster Stem,” and “Choosing Hardwood Floor Safe Furniture Casters.”

We hope these videos are both helpful and informative!

Service Caster Engineers Mining Wheels

Service Caster steps outside the box, and goes underground to produce a wheel for extreme conditions.

The mining industry was in need of a wheel to carry its 140,000 pound capacity mining tuggers. Tuggers are used to pull mining equipment into and out of mines. These slow moving vehicles, about one mile-per-hour, had to have a specially designed and built wheel to handle the workload and rough surface of the mine passages. The engineers at Service Caster put the catalog aside and got to work.

The result is a massive wheel weighing over 1,300 pounds. Standing 36 inches tall and with a width of 22 inches, these cast iron core, super extra heavy duty polyurethane wheels are made to withstand the rigors of the mining environment. The substantial width of each wheel offers more surface contact, in effect spreading the pounds per square inch over a larger area. The heavy duty polyurethane tread will allow the tuggers to roll over debris in a smoother fashion than a solid iron or steel would allow.

Above ground or below, Service Caster Corporation continues to match the needs of industry.

Caster and Wheel Bearings

A confusing term at times can be bearings in regards to their use in casters. Bearings are used in casters for both wheels and swivel heads, and here we will discuss both.

Wheel Bearings

Wheel bearings sit between the wheel and the axle, and provide a way for the wheel to easily spin on the axle. These bearings come in a number of different types, each with its own advantages.

Delrin bearings are inexpensive, and need no maintenance. They are a simple bushing made of Delrin, a plastic material. Delrin bearings work well in wet applications since they have no moving or metal parts that could corrode.

Roller bearings are best suited to low speed, manual operation with intermittent use. The roller bearing consists of a series of rollers arranged to sit on an axle and easily roll around it. Roller bearings can be solid or split caged. Split cage roller bearings do not handle side thrust as well as their solid counterpart, which is inserted into the wheel with a press. Roller bearings require regular maintenance.

Precision Bearings are a high quality ball bearing. These are excellent for applications that require high speed, quiet, and/or continuous operation. Precision bearings do not require regular maintenance to function properly. Semi-Precision bearings offer a less expensive, low speed and light duty option for those that still want quiet, maintenance free operation.

Tapered bearings are used on the heaviest duty casters. These bearings can handle high speeds and power driven application. Tapered bearings also handle side thrust well, and excel at continuous operation. They do require regular maintenance for good performance.

Please visit our caster wheel bearings page for images and additional information.

Swivel Head Bearings for Casters

Swivel Head bearings are typically ball bearings inside of a raceway. The swivel head assembly and its bearings allow for the wheel to easily turn and add steerability to applications. This raceway can be sealed or exposed. A sealed raceway protects the bearing assembly from dirt and other debris that is harmful to the bearing. The raceway can also be precision made and hardened to increase the longevity and performance of the swivel head.

Chickens on Wheels – Mobile Coops with Casters

It’s that time of year when this seasons little peeps reaching chicken teenhood are needing to get out into the fresh air. Many people have small coops for 3 to 10 chickens, and an ongoing issue is the destruction of the turf beneath the coop and attached run. The solution for those in suburban locales or with limited space in rural settings is a mobile coop set on casters.

Our own experience first occurred about 20 years ago when we put a pair of solid rubber wheel casters on a friends newly built coop. By placing the casters on the heavier end, this created an efficient fulcrum, and the coop could be moved by hand or garden tractor.

With a heavier coop, wheels might be needed at all 4 corners. Then, attached to a small tractor, the unit becomes easy to move. The type of casters or wheels needed will depend on the coop weight, and the sod. A harder rocky soil will require a different wheel than a more wet, possibly soggy location. This moveable system can help provide a healthier environment for all involved.

Caster Wheels for High Temperature Environments

Most casters and wheels for industry and commercial applications contain some ability for exposure to temperatures above the norm. Typically, temperatures to 180 degrees Fahrenheit are possible. For those environments where higher temperature are expected, such as a bakery oven or autoclave, caster wheel composition must be considered.

Recommended exposures to high temperature and length of operation vary. Also, consideration to the type of heat is necessary. These factors, along with floor surface, determine the possible lifetime of the caster wheel.

For locations with a dry heat, high temperature Phenolic wheels perform optimally. A safe range for estimating usage would be temperatures up to 475° F for 30 minutes of continuous operation.

When moist heat is expected, a glass-filled nylon wheel for high temperatures is the favored option. Conservatively, 475° F for 30 minutes continuous use provides the best scenario for a prolonged wheel lifetime. It should be noted that glass-filled nylon wheels are not for use in dry heat.

For issues of high heat, high temperature Phenolic and glass-filled nylon wheels are a solution for most environs. As noted, usage is permitted beyond the given parameters, but life expectancy of the caster wheels might be greatly reduced.

Choosing a Hardwood Floor Furniture Caster

You have a beautiful hardwood floor, but your chairs, tables, and other furniture on casters are all hard plastic and nylon. These hard material wheels will cut and scratch the floor easily. What solutions are there, you might ask?

Hardwood floor casters are available for any common connections types out there. These casters are made of soft polyurethane, rubber, or other materials specifically designed for hardwood floors. In most of these cases, the casters will not only be hardwood safe, but they will also roll and perform better. Materials that have more grip will roll easier than harder wheels, so you won’t skip or skid across the floor but instead roll smoothly.

Is a caster hardwood floor safe just because its rubber or soft material? No! A small diameter rubber wheel can cause as much damage as a hard wheel. When choosing a caster, get one that distributes weight over a wider area. Twin wheel casters are a good idea, or a large soft single wheel caster.

The investment of some quality hardwood floor casters greatly outweighs the cost of replacing or fixing a hardwood floor.

Desert Tortoise Rehab Project – Using Low Profile Casters

It’s not every day you see a tortoise on wheels, but that’s what Reaper is! Service Caster got a call for help from the adoption team at the SF Valley Chapter of California Turtle & Tortoise Club. This tortoise, once named Speedy (now Reaper) was unfortunate enough to spend nearly 9 months trapped under a crawlspace. Amazingly he survived, but was extremely malnourished, dehydrated, and barely able to move when he finally freed himself. In order to rehabilitate Reaper, the Tortoise club designed a turtle skateboard. Not only did Service Caster provide the wheels for this skateboard, but fabricated the entire project for Reaper. This donation has enabled Reaper to become more easily mobile and provides an opportunity to aid in facilitating a full recovery.

Like any person dealing with rehab, he has good days and those that are not as good. The hope is that the tortoise will regain a normal walking rhythm and subsequently a normal tortoise life. The Service Caster family shares that hope and wishes Reaper the best while recovering.

Twin Wheel Casters VS. Single Wheel Casters

One question we get a lot here at SCC is “Why choose a twin wheel caster instead of a single wheel caster?” Well, let me tell you.

A twin wheel caster offers several distinct advantages over its single wheeled counterpart. Perhaps the most obvious advantage is weight handling capacity. If we take two casters with the same wheel diameter and material, but one is twin wheeled, it will handle more weight. Another way to look at this advantage is that we can use a smaller twin wheel caster to reach the same weight bearing capacity as a larger single wheel. This can be important if you need to maintain a lower load height within a specific weight capacity range.

Another great advantage of twin wheel casters is their ability to turn easily. Where a single wheel caster must pivot on itself, a twin wheel caster’s wheels can rotate independently of each other, making turning or reversing direction much easier.