Author: Algood

Choosing the right casters and maintaining them properly are essential steps to protect your mobility investment. However, casters often lurk in the shadows, out of sight and mind, until something starts creaking in the night. Yet, there can be some precious cargo riding on those wheels, and if one or more fails, it can cost you dearly. At the very least, failed casters are a real nightmare because you have to drop everything and give them your immediate attention. To help you recognize when the mobility monsters are at work and it’s time to call Caster 911, this issue of CasterU  highlights a few telltale signs that your casters might be on their last legs—or wheels.

1. Unsettling Noises

If your casters are screeching or rattling like a ghostly wail, they’re likely crying out for some lubrication. Casters should be lubricated twice a year to keep the wheels rolling smoothly. If strange noises persist, it might be due to a seizing wheel bearing, an incorrect bearing type, or even a worn rig/yoke. Sometimes, these eerie sounds indicate a caster misalignment that needs fixing before things get truly scary. It could be like hearing the floorboards creak when no one’s home–your first sign that something is coming back to haunt you.

2. Push/Pull Predicaments

If pushing equipment feels like hauling a trap filled with angry spirits, it’s probably rust or corrosion haunting your caster. Casters running at excessive speeds can also overheat and damage the hub, diminishing performance. If turning becomes a problem, the culprit could be brinelling—a condition where ball bearings create grooves in the raceway, limiting the caster’s swivel range. It’s like trying to run from a ghost in a nightmare–no matter how hard you push, you’re not going anywhere fast.

3. Uneven Wheel Wear or Flat Spots

Flat spots on your wheels might indicate foreign materials like thread, dirt, or even stray metal binding the wheels. Alternatively, it could mean the wheel material isn’t a good match for the temperature or conditionsit’s being used in. Think of it like rolling through a maze of spiderwebs–you keep getting tangled, and every rotation only slows you down.

4. Frame Distortion

This spine-chilling issue often arises from exceeding load capacities or experiencing excessive impact loads—like encountering a bump that magnifies the weight beyond what the casters can handle. Over time, this leads to a distorted frame that needs careful attention.

5. Top Plate Separation

If equipment goes over an unexpected obstacle or faces severe conditions, the top plate might bend and detach. This could also hint that the wrong hardware or washers were used during installation—creating a ghoulish situation no one wants to face. It’s like a vampire’s coffin lid coming off–nothing stays in place when it’s needed most.

6. Bent Stem or Kingpin

Collisions with other equipment or impacts with obstacles can leave your casters with bent stems or kingpins. Additionally, uneven loads can place excess strain on a single caster, leading to warping or contortion over time. It would be like a skeleton missing a few crucial bones–everything’s left unstable and on the verge of collapse.

If you encounter any of the signs above, it’s an emergency—your casters likely need to be replaced. However, the best way to avoid a 911 call is to use the right caster specifications from the start and maintain them properly. For expert advice to keep your mobility nightmares at bay, reach out to your local Algood sales representative or a member of our customer support team.

Electroplating is a key component of the caster manufacturing process. In this issue of CasterU, we provide you with everything you need to know about plating. 

Caster components are plated for two reasons. First, plating protects parts from corrosion. In fact, parts that are plated corrode 100 times slower than those that are untreated. Plating also enhances the appearance of parts, which is particularly important for furniture and retail fixtures.

Zinc plating is the most common coating available. It is also the most economical and requires the shortest lead times. Nickel, chrome and antique finishes are used to meet visual requirements. In this primer, we focus on zinc.

Based on the type of electroplating, there are many possible steps in the plating process. Here is a typical zinc plating process:

Soak & Cleaning — For the electroplating process to be most successful, all components must be thoroughly cleaned. Oil residue from stamping and chemicals from heat treatment processes prevent the adhesion of zinc plating and cause flaking. Parts are immersed in different acid and/or alkaline baths as part of electro-cleaning processes, which remove residue, debris, and scales at a micro level.

Zinc Plating Bath — Components are immersed in a solution that includes zinc and other chemicals. The length of time and other parameters of the solution determine the thickness of the zinc coating. At Algood, our standard coating thickness is eight microns, between 0.0003 and 0.0005 inches. The other chemicals in the solution add protection to the zinc coating and can enhance its appearance.

Dipping in the zinc solution can be done using a tumbling process where many small parts like nuts and washers are placed in a barrel and plated at the same time. That process isn’t suitable for bigger parts because fewer parts can fit economically in the barrel, and it would also result in dinging or denting. The alternative is a rack plating process in which parts are suspended through fixtures onto racks, and the complete rack with parts is dipped in the plating solution.

Rinsing & Seal Application — Components are rinsed thoroughly and dried, and often, an additional sealing solution is applied for added protection against rust. 

Corrosion protection testing is done by placing parts in a salt spray test chamber and measuring the number of hours until rust appears. Actually, there are two types of rust that are considered. The first to appear is white rust, which results when the zinc coating is oxidized. Once that coating has deteriorated, the metal itself oxidizes, and red rust appears.
 
There are options available to enhance zinc plating. Components can be immersed in the zinc solution for longer to add thickness to the coating. Additional chemicals can be added to provide enhanced protection to the plating. This is often done for casters to be used in the computer industry, where any flaking could contaminate the whole environment.

Environmental standards are extremely critical and all Algood’s plating is ROHS compliant, meaning that no hazardous chemicals are used.

Of course, your Algood sales representative or a member of our customer service team would be pleased to talk to you about the right plating to meet your requirements.