Furniture instability has been cited as a primary cause of thousands of injuries each year. Moving furniture is also another cause of injury for thousands more.
You don’t have to be a genius or superhero to prevent these injuries. You can just leverage the use of casters. What are casters? Keep reading to learn what casters are and how you can use them to make your life easier.
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What Are Casters?
You’ll know casters when you see them. They’re wheels that you put on furniture, shelving units, and heavy items to make them easier to move.
That’s not quite the right answer. Casters do have wheels, but they’re really an entire system engineered to support more weight than a wheel can.
Casters come with a flat plate on top and they have a bracket, also called a fork, that comes down towards the ground. This is where the wheel connects.
This system lets you use the plates to balance the weight of what you need to move. The wheels let you move the object without injury. You have both stability and mobility and now you know how to move objects on wheels.
Types of Casters
Are you intrigued by the use of casters and how you can use them for moving equipment on wheels? They can be a back-saver, you just have to know which casters are the best ones to use.
There are different types of casters that work for different types of applications. Here are the most common types of casters and how you can use them.
Plate Casters
These casters are the most common, as they have a flat plate at the top. The plate would attach to the object. One common application of a plate caster is seen on a square wooden dolly.
Without these casters, the dolly is just four pieces of wood that make a square or rectangle. Add a caster on each corner and you have something that you can put a refrigerator on to move it safely.
Locking Casters
Standard casters can usually roll and swivel easily. This may not always be the safest thing, especially when you’re moving a large object and you need to step away for a few seconds.
A locking caster can lock the wheel to prevent the object from moving. It’s a great safety mechanism. Not all casters have this feature, so you want to check if the casters lock before you make the purchase.
Dual Wheel Casters
These are heavy duty casters that have two wheels attached to each bracket. A dual wheel caster can hold much more weight than a single wheel caster. This makes it a prime choice for objects that require high loads.
Casters Make Life Easier and Injury-Free
The wheel was invented thousands of years ago. Engineers took it upon themselves to make improvements to the wheel. Today, we have casters as a result.
What are casters? Casters are wheels that have plates and brackets that the wheel attaches to. This allows the wheel to move freely and bear more weight. That gives heavy objects stability and mobility, which lowers the number of injuries.
For more tool tips, check out the buying guides on this site.
