Focus: Load Capacity
Load capacity is a concept that sometimes can be a little unclear. What does it mean, what is the difference between dynamic and static and why is it important?
How to interpret load capacity?
When choosing wheels, it is done exclusively according to the area of use and environment the wheel will be used in. Which product/application should the wheels be on and how is this used? Depending on the area of use, different technical characteristics of a wheel become important.
When the area of use is determined, you often begin to define castor type, linked, fixed, braked. What kind of wheels should it be? For example, hard or soft tread. Next, you might specify the type of attachment and the build height, also called the total height. Now we're starting to have a pretty good idea of what range to look at. After this very often comes the question of load capacity. How much weight will the application handle and what will the wheel be able to handle?
Load capacity is the first parameter that gives room for interpretation. If the build height is 125mm, that's the way it is. But if it says that the wheel can handle 100kg dynamically, what does that mean?
When we enter a data in the form of dynamic load capacity on, for example, our product sheets or the web, it is tested according to an EN standard. Depending on what type of wheel it is, furniture, industry, etcetera, there are different standards to test for.
How to interpret the value? If it says 100kg, what does it really mean?
Our front-tested value is more of an indication value that makes a specific wheel directly comparable to similar wheels tested to the same standard. You as a user or your customers will not use the wheel in the same way as it is tested. However, this does not mean that the test is useless, it gives a good indication as the test both answers how a wheel copes with continuous operation and minor obstacles. But there are more things to consider before choosing what load capacity the wheel needs to withstand and under what conditions.
Some examples of important factors to add when assessing load capacity are, for example, will the wheel run faster than 4km / h, will it go downhill or over high edges, will the wheel mainly be rolled on light weights but be highly loaded when standing still, is there a risk of shock load or impact at high load?
In other words, your use is the most important parameter for what dynamic load capacity you need. If you know that the application for which the wheel will be used will be used in more extreme conditions, the best thing to do is always to contact an expert on the subject. Swede-Wheel also performs special tests to simulate your challenges as a service, so do not hesitate to contact us.
If, on the other hand, you know that the wheel should be placed on a display stand that mostly stands still in a store, then perhaps the static load capacity is more important to look at. As a rule of thumb, you can expect the static load capacityto be 50% higher than the dynamic one. Another good rule of thumb is to use is to, on a four-wheel application, calculate the weight of three wheels. You then have a 25% safety margin. The floor is rarely completely flat, which can cause the weight to be loaded unevenly over the wheels. Hence, this is a good rule to use.