If your rollers need extra polyurethane, we can provide a high-quality product that will meet all your specifications and needs. High speed/high load wheel and roller applications often use special high performance polyurethane treads. NDI and PPDI are most common. An alternative is TODI polyurethane which has significant advantages over the traditional materials. Extensive testing has shown that TODI poly performs comparably to NDI and PPDI, at a significantly lower cost. When comparing the chemical structures of the ultra-high performance elastomers to those of other polyurethane elastomers, the underlying structure is key to their improved properties. Their structures are rigid, compact [...]

The advent of polyurethane roughly 50 years ago revolutionized many industries and products, including heavy-duty industrial casters and wheels. Consider that today, roughly 80 percent of all heavy-duty caster and wheel applications require polyurethane tires attached to the wheel core. When processed and manufactured correctly, with suitably high-quality urethane, polyurethane wheels are excellent, long-lived products. Unfortunately, improper processing, or using urethanes meant for non-dynamic applications, causes polyurethane tires to fail prematurely. At Caster Concepts, our engineers bring years of expertise to helping you determine the proper material for your polyurethane tire. I’d like to share five critical factors that increase your [...]

Swimming with sharks requires staying at the top of the food chain. Similarly, in a highly competitive business climate, a company must guarantee a quality product to become and stay the best. To that end, we’re proud to announce that once again, Perry Johnson Registrars Inc. renewed Caster Concepts Inc.’s ISO compliance for another three years. The renewal to ISO 9001:2008 compliance is our 20th year reaching this highest industry standard. As a world-class manufacturer of heavy-duty industrial casters, our customers and employees expect no less. “We are delighted to have again achieved ISO 9001:2008 certification,” said William Dobbins, president of [...]

Many customers need a high temperature industrial wheel applications for use in harsher environments such as autoclaves.  Wheel material and lubrication are important factors in specifying the correct industrial wheel, but in order to provide the proper bearing in a high temperature application it is important to understand the application, how the wheel will be used, and the extreme temperature rating. Questions to specify the correct bearing may include:   What is the temperature range? (lowest and highest) How long will the wheel be exposed to the high temperature? What is the maximum weight capacity required? (heat will affect both the wheel and [...]

The term Made in the USA can mean many things but for most people it signifies that a product is fully manufactured in the United States. While it is not a deciding factor for everyone when making purchases, for many it is an important factor. Purchasing items made in the USA can help drive our economy. It keeps our currency in circulation within our country rather than being spent overseas for products and supplies. Furthermore, products made in the USA support the American job market. By buying American made products, you are supporting businesses that hire Americans to work in [...]

Choosing a polyurethane caster wheel for an industrial application? You will want the highest quality and the best value. But, what if due to high temperatures, the polyurethane wheel starts to deteriorate?  What if heavy loads or speeds create the same problem?  Well, assuming that the polyurethane is the best material possible (regarding value), we have two choices: Replace the worn wheels with new wheels Have the poly wheels “remolded” It is the latter option we will discuss here. What benefit(s) would we possibly gain from remolding? First, and perhaps most important is the financial benefit. In a nutshell, we don’t have [...]

Drive Casters Keep Manufacturing Plants Moving. At Caster Concepts, sometimes our best inspiration comes from the caster design challenges our existing customers bring to us. Such input has led to innovations like CasterShoX, which conquers the problems posed by uneven floors and cart noise; and Twergo, which can tame the heaviest cart loads. But sometimes, even all of that innovation isn’t quite enough to move heavy loads in carts across the factory floor -- applications where loads on manual carts top 4,000 pounds and require two people to move, for example. Our research team at Caster Concepts has answered the [...]

Generally in high speed/high load wheel and roller applications, special performance polyurethanes are used. NDI and PPDI are most common. Reaction Industries has an alternative in TODI polyurethane, with advantages over traditional materials. Extensive testing has shown TODI urethane performs comparably to NDI and PPDI urethanes, at significantly lower cost. When comparing the chemical structures of ultra-high performance elastomers to those of other polyurethane elastomers the underlying structure is key to their improved properties. Their structures are rigid, compact and symmetric. TODI elastomer shares many structural characteristics as NDI and PPDI elastomers. The mechanical properties of NDI, PPDI and TODI urethanes [...]

Drive wheels are used in many conveyor applications to advance items and in automatic guided vehicles to drive the vehicles. Polyurethane drive wheels are a popular choice because they have good dynamic properties, good wear properties, and provide a high coefficient of friction. While polyurethane treads are commonly used in drive wheel applications, there is much to consider when designing the wheel for the application. 1. Load and Torque It is critical to understand how much load the drive wheel will carry as well as how much torque will be applied. These values are needed to properly size the drive [...]

Situation: An automotive assembly plant needed a heavy duty conveyor system repaired. The complex system had a wide variety of drive wheels, idler wheels and buffer wheels. The problem was that the conveyor was manufactured in Europe and the replacement parts had significant lead times and costs. The customer needed a reliable domestic source to decrease cost of replacement parts and to provide the parts quickly. Solution: The engineering staff of Conveyor Concepts reversed engineered and improved numerous components of this heavy duty conveyor system which incorporate polyurethane, fabrication and precision machining. These components included: full buffer and drive assemblies, [...]