How to get your casters prepared for rainy season

Between early June to the end of October every year is rainy season in Thailand. In which some people may or may not like depend on their preferences; however, rain is everybody’s struggle when it comes to everyday’s commute. To move from one place to another while having rain pours down all the time is a hassle. The travel time increases and we need to be more cautious than usual. Therefore, in this rainy season, carrying object from point A to point B with casters on the trolley with you pushing it is not different. Water is strictly unsuitable with industrial work involving electricity and metal in general. In this case, by using normal caster in this season, the unnecessary risk also increases dramatically.

1. Increased risk for carried goods

During this season that the outside area will mostly be wet all the time which in turn affect the trolley usage with waterlogged floor or even shallow flood in lowland area. Even though pushing a trolley cart is not done in high velocity manner to begin with, i.e., even slower or equals to the speed of someone walking, this unfavorable territory is riskier and prone to foreseeable accidents. Especially if your goods are valuable items such as electronic parts or fragile instruments, the damaged properties and unnecessary expense, though avoidable, could possibly be happening sooner or later.  

2. Increased risk for user

Due to the unfavorable floor condition, user needs to be more cautious and careful about his belongings more than usual, this in turn could potentially lessen his concern regarding his surrounding. The result could be more accidents in workplace which is no laughing matter.

3. Shorten life-span of affected casters

Normally, there is lubricant inserted into a caster to make it roll smoothly. This lubricant will wear down as time goes by and how hard or often that caster is used. The water from rain or splashing from waterlogged area can leak into the interior of the caster. Therefore, lubricant gets washed off gradually  until there is nothing left inside at all. Furthermore the metal parts of caster can get rusty very quickly as well. Combining both lubricant getting washed off and metal getting rusty, the life-span of that particular caster gets shorten dramatically.

We would like to suggest 4 Steps to make your casters last longer.

1. Check the floor

Yes, your caster can roll on almost any surface but it rolls better on some more than the others and here is why. Rubber casters are easily the number one pick for most users; however, it cannot withstand piercing from sharp objects scattering around the floor. Metal fragments or glass shards can easily penetrate the rubber surface and damage it permanently. In this case your best choice would be to pick Polyurethane caster (PU) as it resists piercing. Whereas rubber is great when it comes to using indoor, like on carpet or parquet because it produces low noise when rolling and is soft enough to not damage the floor.

2. Refill the lubricant

The lubricant inside a caster will gradually decrease as you are using it. This is normal since the bushings inside spins, as the caster rolls, and spills grease out all the time. Therefore if it runs out, the caster will get stuck more often and does not roll as smooth as it used to be. You need to check and lubricate it every now and then.

3. Check the caster

Caster is the same as other things that gets degraded over time. The heavier you use it, the quicker you need to replace it. If one caster is malfunctioned, the others will need to do more work which they are not meant to do in the first place. For example, the loading capacity might exceed the recommended criteria for 3 wheels rather than the intended 4 wheels trolley. By checking and maintaining caster periodically: refilling the lubricant; replacing the broken one; and using caster that suits to their specification can really get the work out of your caster.

4. Or choose the superior caster that can handle those problems 

Main components of caster is undoubtedly metal. Though it can become very resistant to rust with proper coating, there are still not keen on handling in heavily wet condition such as in rainy season. But there is one particular series of our caster that fit greatly. The “SE series” stands for “Special Edition series”. SE series caster is a very strong caster with high level of water resistance. The metal brackets use epoxy coating technology and the disc wheel is PP-Copo, or rather industrial-graded plastic. They are both durable to wetness and also corrosion from chemical substances or greases. It also is maintenance-free, thanks to its sealed double ball bearing inside. 

Both trolleys and casters are like cars and their wheels, they all can take the extra hard work because they are built to handle such an important tasks. But taking precautions and keeping things well-maintained are always a good option. We wish this guideline could help you more or less about casters. Thank you for reading.

Firstly published by: S.C. Rubber & Machinery Part., Ltd.
Date: 06/17/2014