Wheels for beginners - by a beginner

During my life, I have devoted very few thoughts about wheels and its function. At some point in primary school, I understood that wheel’s roll, and rolling is a further development on the concept of sliding, and I considered myself there and then as an expert in the subject. I was probably laughing to myself, "Haha how stupid they were 10,000 years ago, they couldn’t figure out wheels".

It would take a pandemic in my life to understand that there is more to wheels than just rolling.

 

Mind the hard wood floor

Working from home was a fact and it seemed to continue that way for quite some time. The throne of the Home Office was a large black budget, office chair. The most distinctive thing about the chair, apart from back pain, was that it rattled while rolling over the floor. Well, rolled is an overstatement, the small plastic wheels slid forward and thus abandoned the basic concept with wheels.

It was time to upgrade. Out flew the budget chair and in came what appeared to belong in a race car. After the first test it was not the adjustable armrests or the soft memory foam pads that got my focus, but it was the wheels. Never had i rolled so lightly and so quietly across the parquet floor, and I realized that wheels are more than "something that rolls". I understood that certain characteristics of a wheel are suitable for certain uses and if the right characteristics are applied, not only will the function be better, but also the feeling.

 

Wheels 101

After the first week at Swede-Wheel, I really understand that I don't understand wheels at all. But here's what I – a wheel expert in making – realized is fundamental to the function of a wheel.

Diameter – The diameter of a wheel plays a major role in its use. A wheel with a small diameter is well suited to environments where the surface is relatively flat, like a concrete floor. If the surface instead is unpredictable and uneven, it requires a wheel with a larger diameter that easily rolls over, for example, a door strip or a gravel grain. However, a larger wheel gives a higher height that change the center of gravity, which can be problematic for example a long, narrow piece of furniture. It is also worth mentioning aesthetics and price. A smaller wheel can often be considered more stylish and it is, naturally, cheaper.

 

 

Hardness­ – When you talk hard or soft wheel, you talk about the track that contacts the ground. A hard path is preferable when rolling very heavy objects. It can be compared with a bicycle tire. A tire with less air (soft track) is harder to pedal, while a hard pumped (hard track) becomes lighter. Another advantage of a hard track is the price since it is usually casted in a single material, you can skip one step in manufacturing. The disadvantage of a hard track occurs if you have a floor where gravel and stone appear, then it can get stuck in the hard path, stop the wheel, and make scratch marks.

Soft wheels eat. They eat vibrations from the ground and contribute to both stability and a quieter wheel. Imagine having a trolley with lots of glass stacked on top of each other that you're going to take through a library stone floors and deep joints. In this case, a pair of soft wheels, which pick up vibrations, will save you many angry glances. A simple rule of thumb when you think about the hardness: What I lack in floor, I compensate in wheel.

There are, of course, a thousand other properties that affect a wheel, but I haven't learned them yet. I return with a new text when I learned it!

 

In the same way I laughed at my ancestors 20 years ago, I now laugh at myself. "How stupid I was to think wheels were just rolling."