How To Choose Appropriate Castors – Our Top Tips

Whether you're looking for trolley castor wheels or heavy-duty castors for industrial equipment, you need to buy the correct ones in order to achieve optimal performance, safety, and durability. Let’s look at the steps required to ensure you make the right choice for your application.

Ask Yourself The Right Questions

Your ideal castor and wheel type depend on your unique requirements, including the application’s load-capacity, the floor surface type, and the level of steering and breaking control you need. Note down the answers to the following questions before you start to shop:

What type of equipment do you want to fit the castors to?

How much weight do they need to support?

Will you need to move the equipment in all directions or just in straight lines?

How even are the floors that you'll be using?

How much room is there on the base of your equipment?

Does the equipment have hollow metal legs?

Learn More About Different Castor Types

Although there are various types and models of industrial castors, they all fall into a few basic categories. Trolley castors can, firstly, be divided according to the type of fittings that they use, and secondly, the kind of wheels that have:

1) Fitting options

Single bolt hole castors – These are attached to the equipment using a single bolt or stem. They are designed for use on flat surfaces - e.g. poured resin flooring in a warehouse - and can carry loads of up to 400kg. You can buy single bolt castor wheels with or without brakes, and many of them can be fitted to equipment with hollow metal legs via expanders. All bolt hole castors have 360° swivel designs to ensure maximum manoeuvrability. They also tend to be compact and simple to install.

Plate fitting castors – This type of castor comes with an integrated metal plate with four bolt holes, evenly distributing weight across the castor, and making it exceptionally stable. Suitable for use on uneven floors, fixed plate castors can support heavier weights and more uneven loads than their bolt hole counterparts, making them a superb choice for industrial use. You can buy swivel or rigid fixed plate castor versions, and some models come with or without brakes.

2) Wheel options

• Soft tread wheels – Ultra-durable, soft tread wheels are resistant to abrasive wear and tear and are suitable for use on all surface types. They are also quiet and should cause little damage to floors, making them suitable for hospital and retail environments. Soft tread wheels are best suited for use with lighter manually moveable loads or automated moveable equipment.
• Hard tread wheels – Robust and hard-wearing, hard tread wheels are used to manoeuvre heavy loads over uneven surfaces. Choose castors with nylon, reinforced phenolic, or reinforced polyamide wheels if you want to minimise noise and protect your flooring.

Assess The Suitability Of The Products On Sale

Castors and wheels are available in a wide range of prices and materials, and quality can vary between brands. We recommend using a UK manufacturer and supplier, such as ourselves at Rolltek. All our products comply with UK and international safety standards and engineering standards. Rolltek products come with excellent after sales care guaranteed to provide value for money and a long service life. Please browse our website for more details of our current range, and feel free to contact us directly if you have any questions. Let’s look at the steps required to ensure you make the right choice for your application.