Stainless Steel Castors.

What are Stainless Steel Castors?

Stainless steel castors, also known as stainless steel castor wheels, are the corrosion-resistant part of Accu’s Castors & Wheels range, built for wet, washdown and chemically aggressive environments where a plated steel castor would rust. An unpainted stainless steel fork and top plate sets them apart from the blue passivated or zinc plated finish of a standard castor, and they carry a natural, white, blue or black polymer wheel. Because the housing resists corrosion through its own material rather than a surface coating, there is no plating to chip or wear through, so the castor keeps working through repeated cleaning.

The ALPHA STAINLESS castors are listed against EN 12532, the standard for industrial equipment moved at up to 4 km/h, and are all rated Excellent (5 of 5) for corrosion resistance. They are used wherever equipment is regularly washed down or exposed to moisture and chemicals, from food and drink production halls and laboratories to pharmaceutical and chemical plants, cold stores and outdoor sites.

How Stainless Steel Castors Work

Mechanically, a stainless steel castor is conventional, fixing through a top plate or a single 13 mm bolt hole, with a ball race in the swivel head and its own bearing in the wheel. What changes is how it copes with water and chemicals: stainless steel forms a thin, self-repairing oxide layer, so the scratches and wear that come with regular cleaning do not expose bare metal in the way chipped plating does on a standard steel castor. The wheel bearing is the other part that matters in wet areas, so the range offers stainless steel roller bearings, plain bearings running in a polyamide wheel and dry bearing bushes on the heat-resistant versions. The result is a castor that can be hosed down or wiped with cleaning chemicals as part of a routine schedule without the housing rusting.

In a chemical plant, a stainless drum trolley carrying 480 kg of sealed containers on a 60 kg frame is hosed down with water and detergent after every shift. Shared across three castors in contact, that comes to 180 kg each, within the 200 kg rating of a 125 mm stainless steel castor with an injection moulded polyurethane tread running on stainless steel roller bearings. With no plating to chip and stainless steel roller bearings in the wheel, the castor keeps rolling through the daily cleaning that would soon leave a plated castor rusting at the fork. Rated from -25 to 80 °C, the polyurethane tread also copes with chilled storage areas.

Materials Stainless Steel Castors Are Made From

Stainless steel castors are listed in the following sizes, fixings and ratings, covering light laboratory trolleys through to heavy process carts:

• Stainless Steel: The fork and top plate on every castor in this range, rated Excellent (5 of 5) for corrosion resistance on the ALPHA STAINLESS series and suited to regular washdown.
• Plastic - Nylon: Solid polyamide wheels and wheel centres at 75 Shore D, offering low rolling resistance, loads up to 500 kg and operating temperatures down to -40 °C on most sizes.
• Plastic - PUR: Injection moulded polyurethane treads at 42 Shore D on polyamide centres, running quietly on stainless steel roller bearings with loads up to 400 kg.
• Plastic - Phenolic: Hard, rigid black wheels rated from 100 kg to 150 kg, plus heat-resistant thermoset wheels rated up to 250 °C and 280 °C.
• Plastic - TP: An alternative black wheel material for stainless housings, in 80 mm and 100 mm sizes rated at 101.8 kg and 152.9 kg.
• Rubber: A heat-resistant damping tread at 75 Shore A, giving a softer ride on 100 mm castors rated at 80 kg.
• Aluminium: The wheel centre beneath the heat-resistant rubber tread.

Sizes & Types of Stainless Steel Castors Available

Accu’s range of stainless steel castors is available in a variety of sizes, fixings and load ratings, from light laboratory trolleys to heavy process carts:

• Wheel Diameter (D): 60 mm to 200 mm.
• Wheel Width (T): 22 mm to 50 mm.
• Mounting Height (H): 90 mm to 240 mm.
• Approximate Load Capacity: 60 kg to 500 kg.
• Castor Type: Swivel Castor or Fixed Castor.
• Braked/Unbraked: Braked or Unbraked.
• Fixing Type: Bolt Hole Fixing; Rectangular Plate, EN R42, 105 x 85 mm; Rectangular Plate, EN R43, 137 x 105 mm.
• Plate Fixing Hole Centres (ExG): 45 x 45 mm to 105 x 80 mm.
• Fixing Hole Diameter: 6.5 mm to 11 mm.
• Bolt Hole Diameter: 13 mm.
• Wheel Bearing: Stainless Steel Roller Bearing; Plain Bearing Without Thread Guard; Dry Bearing Bush.

The 500 kg rating is only reached by the 160 mm and 200 mm castors with polyamide wheels, and there are no threaded stem versions. Braked versions run from 60 mm to 200 mm. The heat-resistant castors come in 100 mm only, rated from 80 kg to 150 kg, as unbraked swivel castors or a single fixed castor, and they are the only ones in the range that run on dry bearing bushes.

Where corrosion is not a concern, why not browse the blue passivated and zinc plated steel castors in Accu’s Swivel Castors and Fixed Castors ranges instead, which offer a wider choice of wheels and loads up to 1,440 kg.

FAQ

Q: What temperatures can stainless steel castors handle?

A: Most of the ALPHA STAINLESS castors are rated from -25 to 80 °C, and most of the polyamide-wheeled versions go down to -40 °C, which suits cold stores and freezer rooms. For hot environments, heat-resistant versions with thermoset or damping rubber wheels on dry bearing bushes are rated to between 130 °C and 280 °C, depending on the castor. Check the Operating Temperature Range on each castor, because the wheel and bearing, not the stainless housing, usually set the limit.

Q: Are stainless steel castors rust-proof?

A: No castor is completely rust-proof, but a stainless housing resists corrosion far better than plated steel. The ALPHA STAINLESS castors are rated Excellent (5 of 5) for corrosion resistance because the housing is solid stainless steel rather than plated carbon steel, so there is no coating to chip or wear through. Corrosion is more likely to start at the bearings, so for regular washdown it is worth choosing stainless steel roller bearings or a plain bearing running in a polyamide wheel. Keeping debris and standing water out of the swivel head helps too.

Q: Which parts of a stainless steel castor are stainless?

A: The fork and top plate, which make up the housing, are stainless steel on every castor in this range. The wheels are polymer or rubber, in polyamide, polyurethane, phenolic, thermoplastic or heat-resistant rubber, so they cannot rust, and many castors run on stainless steel roller bearings. If an application calls for a specific stainless steel grade or a fully stainless assembly down to the axle, Accu’s engineers can confirm the specification of an individual castor before you order.

Bespoke Stainless Steel Castors Manufacture.

High precision, bespoke manufacture of Stainless Steel Castors to customer specification. State of the art facilities specialising in both small batch prototyping and large scale manufacture.