Caster, Wheel, and Bearings Preventative Maintenance
Simple preventative maintenance for your casters will greatly extend your caster and wheel life. by taking the following steps you can assure that your casters will live up to your expectations.
Common Causes for Poor Caster Performance or Quick Wear Down.
Often equipment wears quickly or is abused or subjected to unreasonable demands. The most important factor in making your caster last is choosing the correct caster for your needs. Visit our Caster Resource Center before making your initial purchase inorder to increase the likely hood that you will select the best caster to meet your materail handling needs.
Periodically Examine Equipment For:
- Frame and Fasteners
- Tighten loose bolts and nuts and look for broken welds or deck boards.
- Look for frame distortion due to overloads or impact loads. A distorted frame can cause premature wheel failure because of abnormal loads on one or two casters.
- If casters are stem type, bolted or riveted in place, make sure the legs of the equipment are not bent and mounting bolts are properly secured.
- Always use lock nuts or lock washers in mounting casters.
- Be sure casters with expanding adapters in tubular equipment are held firmly in place.
- Caster frames should periodically be inspected for metal fatigue cracks (especially under shock loading conditions)
- Lubrication
- All caster bearings need to be lubricated with a high quality grade of multi-purpose grease that has good extreme pressure and anti-wear characteristics. Wheel and swivel bearings last longer if lubricated regularly.
- Some lube applied to friction points on the wheel hub, washer and leg surfaces of straight roller bearing systems reduces drag and improves reliability.
- Normal conditions may warrant lubrication every six months, but once a month may be necessary in a corrosive application.
- Cart washings may necessitate lubrication after each wash.
- Wheels
- Check for visible points of tread wear. Flat spots may indicate foreign material, such as string, thread, metal, etc., causing wheels to bind. Thread guards will delay build-up of such materials.
- Loose casters or frozen wheels may also produce flat spotting.
- Replace wheel and/or caster to avoid erratic rolling. After inspecting and making corrections, be sure axle nut is properly tightened.
- Use lock washers or nuts on all axles.
- Tighten loose axle immediately to avoid becoming cocked in the caster housing/rig and locking up.
- Keep replacement wheels and bearings on hand to avoid costly downtime.
- Disgard abused or damaged wheels.
- Casters
- If swivel assembly is loose, it may need to be replaced.
- If caster has a king bolt nut, make sure it is securely fastened.
- If swivel assembly does not turn freely, check raceways for corrosion or dirt.
- If equipment has rigid casters at one end, make sure caster housing/rig is not bent.
- When necessary, retighten caster mounting bolts and, if casters are welded to equipment, check the weldments for cracks.
- Propre Equiptment Usage-Shock Loading- Excessive High Speeds
- Place loads gently onto any cart, truck, or bin attached to any casters. Overloading or droping loads (shock loading) on carts, trucks, or bins may cause sudden wheel or equipment failure.
- High speeds on rough floors can quickly create severe damage to tread and wheels
