Fixed Casters.

What are Fixed Casters?

Fixed casters, also known as rigid casters, non-swivel casters or fixed caster wheels, are the tracking half of Accu’s Casters & Wheels range, keeping equipment rolling in a straight line while swivel casters take care of the steering. The wheel is held in a fork fixed solid to the top plate, so a fixed caster looks like a swivel caster with the swivel head taken out and the wheel sitting directly beneath the plate. With the caster wheels fixed in one direction, they resist sideways drift and give a cart or machine base a stable, predictable line when it is pushed over any distance.

Most fixed casters with full specifications sit under one of four European standards, ranging from EN 12528 for furniture casters to EN 12533 for industrial equipment moved at 4 km/h to 16 km/h, with EN 12530 and EN 12532 covering institutional settings and industrial use up to 4 km/h in between. They are used on carts, platform trucks and roll containers, on rigs that shuttle back and forth along a line and on heavy transport frames that need to hold a straight course.

How Fixed Casters Work

A fixed caster bolts to the underside of the equipment through its top plate, with the fork pressed or cast as a single rigid bracket around the wheel axle. With no swivel head, there is no swivel offset or swivel radius to allow for and no bearing between plate and fork to wear or work loose. The wheel can only roll in the direction it is mounted, so sideways force from an uneven push or a sloping floor is resisted at the tread rather than turning the caster. That is why rigid casters are fitted in pairs on a common axis, with swivel casters at the other end doing the steering.

A batch oven cart in a powder coating shop shows why: loaded with 220 kg of hung parts on an 80 kg frame, it is pushed straight into a curing oven running at around 200 °C. Divided across three casters rather than four, the load comes to 100 kg each, inside the 125 kg rating of a 100 mm stainless steel fixed caster with a heat-resistant thermoset wheel rated up to 250 °C. With the fixed pair at the oven end and heat-resistant swivel casters at the handle, the cart runs square through the oven door instead of crabbing sideways and clipping the frame. Standard polyamide wheels are rated to 80 °C, so at curing temperature they would be running far outside their rating.

Materials Fixed Casters Are Made From

Accu’s fixed caster wheels and housings use engineering-grade materials picked for rigidity, rolling performance and the conditions on site:

• Steel: Rigid pressed steel brackets in medium to extra-heavy-duty grades, zinc plated, many with a blue passivated finish.
• Stainless Steel: Fixed brackets for wet and chemically aggressive environments, scored Excellent (5 of 5) for corrosion resistance on the ALPHA STAINLESS series, with polyamide-wheeled versions working down to -40 °C.
• Cast Iron: Solid KAPPA fixed brackets and gray cast iron wheel centers, behind heavy-duty fixed caster wheels rated up to 1200 kg.
• Aluminium: Lightweight wheel centers that stay round under load, used beneath cast polyurethane and elastic rubber treads.
• Rubber: Solid and elastic rubber tires that cushion the ride on straight runs, including non-marking versions for finished floors.
• Rubber - TPR: Fitted to the 32 mm compact fixed caster, a thermoplastic rubber tread at 87 Shore A.
• Plastic - PUR: Treads of injection molded or cast polyurethane at 42 Shore D, balancing straight-line rolling ease with floor protection.
• Plastic - Nylon: Polyamide wheels in every fixed size from 14 mm to 200 mm, rolling easily on hard floors.
• Plastic - PP: Light, rigid polypropylene used as a wheel center beneath rubber treads.
• Plastic - Phenolic: Black phenolic wheels on fixed casters rated 100 kg to 150 kg, with a single heat-resistant thermoset version for temperatures up to 250 °C.
• Plastic - TP: Black thermoplastic wheels on the two stainless steel fixed casters, rated at 101.8 kg and 152.9 kg.

Sizes & Types of Fixed Casters Available

Accu’s fixed casters are available in the following sizes, plates and load ratings, from 14 mm compact wheels to 200 mm heavy transport wheels:

• Wheel Diameter (D): 14 mm to 200 mm.
• Wheel Width (T): 13 mm to 50 mm.
• Mounting Height (H): 17 mm to 250 mm.
• Approximate Load Capacity: 25 kg to 1200 kg.
• Static Load Capacity: 50 kg to 2000 kg.
• Fixing Type: Rectangular Plate; Rectangular Plate, EN R42, 105 x 85 mm; Rectangular Plate, EN R43, 137 x 105 mm.
• Plate Dimensions (AxB): 30 x 17 mm to 140 x 115 mm.
• Plate Fixing Hole Centres (ExG): 45 x 45 mm to 105 x 80 mm.
• Fixing Hole Diameter: 4 mm to 11 mm.

Every fixed caster in the range fixes through a top plate, so there are no bolt hole or threaded stem versions, and none carry a brake, since braking is handled by the swivel casters. The compact 14 mm to 45 mm casters use small rectangular plates, while heavy-duty rigid casters rated at 500 kg or more all fix through the EN R43 plate. Most share their mounting height and plate with a matching swivel caster, so the two can be combined on one frame without shimming or redrilling.

If the equipment needs to turn in place rather than track straight, why not browse Accu’s Swivel Casters instead, as four swivel casters trade straight-line stability for full maneuverability.

FAQ

Q: Can you use four fixed casters on a cart?

A: Yes, but only on equipment that moves forward and backward along a single line, such as a shuttle cart running between two stations or a frame on a test bench. With no swivel casters the cart cannot be steered, so turning it means lifting or dragging one end, which scuffs floors and strains the casters. For anything that has to turn, the usual layout is two fixed casters at one end and two swivel casters at the other.

Q: Are fixed casters stronger than swivel casters?

A: Not necessarily. In Accu’s range, a fixed caster almost always carries the same load rating, mounting height and plate as the matching swivel caster with the same wheel, because the wheel and its bearing set the limit rather than the swivel head. Where a fixed caster does help is durability: with no swivel head there is one less bearing to wear, and the rigid fork has no play to develop under repeated sideways loads.

Q: How many fixed casters does a cart need?

A: Most four-caster carts use two fixed casters and two swivel casters, with the fixed pair at the end farthest from the handle so the cart tracks straight while the operator steers. Longer platforms often run on six casters, with a fixed pair at the center and swivel casters at each corner, letting the platform pivot around its middle; in that layout the center pair carries a larger share of the load and is usually a size larger. Equipment that only ever moves in a straight line needs no swivel casters at all.

Bespoke Fixed Casters Manufacture.

High precision, bespoke manufacture of Fixed Casters to customer specification. State of the art facilities specializing in both small batch prototyping and large scale manufacture.