One type of wheel that you might not immediately think about when talking about kitchen equipment is a caster wheel. This is a small wheel that has small wheels on both sides of one larger flat wheel that can be turned. Casters are used for many different applications in the kitchen. They can be used to turn pans, rolling balls of dough, and pinch pleating tools. In this article, I will discuss different types of caster wheels and their uses.
A caster is basically an undriven single, double, tri-axle, or even compound wheel which is designed in such a way that it can be mounted to the underside of an object to allow that object to be rolled over it. They come in different sizes and are most often made of either plastic metal, rubber, nylon, or stainless steel. They have small flat wheels that spin on two vertically positioned legs that are fixed to each other. The legs spin in a hexagonal pattern to roll the wheel over whatever they are to be rolled over.
A swivel caster has a geared back and a geared front axle in a single housing that is rotatable. The axle is fitted with a series of contact patches that allow the caster wheel to move along its axis. On the other hand, a hub is a rotating shaft with a large contact patch that allows the bearing to rotate around its axis. Hubs are frequently fitted with a swivel because they allow a good amount of leverage when turning large loads. However, they generally have very limited load capacity and are poor at bearing against loads of reduced weight.
Spindle hub or chain wheel spindles are made by turning a shaft on a lathe that is secured by a cam lock. This type of hub is typically used on heavy-duty axles because they provide very high bearing pressure. Caster forks are another type of hub used for these purposes. They are commonly mounted on a pair of wheels so that the caster can be spun in one direction or another.
There are three types of wheel bearing housings: ball bearings, roller ball bearings, and contact end. Ball bearings are characterized by having a roller band along the inner ring of the housing and an outer ring that roll around a bearing housing. They are very reliable but tend to not have a very high load capacity. Rollerball bearings, in contrast, have a hexagonal arrangement that rolls around a bearing housing with a series of ball bearings around the outside edge. They tend to have a lower load capacity than ball bearings and tend to experience less wear and tear.
There are a number of factors to consider when choosing a caster wheel bearing type. First, it is important to determine the hub length needed, which can be based on the load required at the axle or the maximum distance between axel centerlines. Second, hub bore sizes and hub lengths must be determined. The hub bore is defined as the outer diameter of the bearing housing and is the only measurement that counts towards the calculation of hub length. Finally, axial rotation speed and the caster connection angle must be considered.
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