Shepherd Caster has long been known for making excellent light duty casters. In recent years, the company has expanded its product offering to the industrial material handling market. In particular, Shepherd’s heavy-duty Bassick Honcho Casters were developed to stand up to abuse in industrial settings.
The History of Shepherd
Shepherd traces its roots as a company back to the 1940s when its founder, George Shepherd, decided to develop casters for residential furniture. He made many prototypes over the next few years, and by the mid-1950s was ready to form a company to manufacture and sell the iconic Shepherd Planet Caster. Producing this caster kept the company busy for the next two decades.
Moving Forward and Progressing…
By the mid-1970s, Shepherd was ready to move beyond home furnishings and expand their market presence into the booming office seating market. To do this, Shepherd developed their next innovative product, the world’s first die cast twin wheel caster, known as the Pacer. This caster has become the standard for office seating, thanks to its easy maneuverability and durable performance.
Shepherd kept busy over the next few decades manufacturing these extremely popular products. During this time, mobile equipment became increasingly important to our developing society. Shepherd saw an opportunity to take the expertise they had developed over the past half-century, and make heavy-duty products suitable for the industrial market.
Introducing Shepherd’s Bassick Casters
Shepherd purchased Bassick Casters in 2001. Bassick, a company that was established in 1878, was very well known for producing high quality products for business machines and industry. After this merger, Shepherd further developed the Bassick line and began selling casters for customers making business machines, industrial material-handling equipment, and products for the maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) markets.
Bassick Honcho Casters
A full line of Bassick Honcho Casters is available from Douglas Equipment. They range from the AS-ER Series on the small end, suitable for material handling containers in the warehouse setting, all the way up to the heaviest-of-duty HA-HB Series casters. This last model can be found on heavy engine stands, fixture trucks and assembly line trucks.
In the middle of the product range is the Bassick Honcho ES-ER Series caster. We’ll cover the details about this model’s many features and benefits next.
Bassick Honcho ES-ER Series Casters
Designed specifically to handle impact and abuse, Bassick Honcho ES-ER Series Casters are built for the intense demands of today’s manufacturing environments. Over the last decades, as manufacturing capabilities have grown, the burdens placed on casters have also increased.
Towline operations in factories provide a great example of this. In previous years, most material-handling equipment was moved across the factory floor under human power, at walking speeds of approximately 3 miles per hour. In recent years, however, towline operations have become increasingly popular. In a towline, several equipment carts can be linked together, and then towed under power to their destination, at speeds of 5-6 miles per hour.
This doubling of speed causes a dramatic increase in the demands placed on the casters. It can cause overheating in wheel treads, and quadruples the energy that must be absorbed in impacts, such as when the caster strikes uneven pavement.
Bassick Honcho ES-ER Series casters are constructed to stand up under these tough conditions, making them ideal for use in towline situations, freight terminal trucks, fixture dollies and warehouse trucks.
Details of Construction
The following individual features come together to give ES-ER Series Casters their strength and durability in demanding operational settings.
• Top Plate – ES
designates swivel top-plate models, while ER designates rigid-top plate models.
• Leg Construction
– For increased strength, ES-ER Series Casters employ a drawn single piece leg construction.
• Raceways
– Three characteristics of the raceways lend durability to ES-ER Series Casters. First, the raceways have a large diameter that helps distribute stresses evenly across the swivel section. Secondly, ES-ER Series Casters use dual ball bearing raceways. This also helps distribute stress: the top level of ball bearings absorb the weight of the load, while the lower ball bearings can absorb any side thrusts. Finally, the raceways are heat treated, which helps them withstand wear.
• Kingpin
–The first component to fail in a caster is often the kingpin. Most of the stresses imposed on a caster impact the kingpin directly, and can cause the kingpin to deform or break. To combat this potential weakness, ES-ER Series Casters are constructed with very strong, hardy kingpins.
• Corrosion Resistance
– To help ES-ER Series Casters stand up to corrosion, they have a yellow dichromatic finish, which helps repel environmental factors that can lead to corrosive wear.
• Total Lock Brake
– This optional brake applies force in two ways. It keeps the wheel from rolling, and also locks the swivel.
• Wheel Sizes
– Wheels are available in three sizes: 5”, 6”, and 8”. Tread width is 2” for all wheel sizes.
• Tread Type
– Four tread materials are available.
1. Hard Rubber
– Rated for dynamic loads of 600 lbs. for 5” wheels, 650 lbs. for 6” wheels, and 750lbs. for 8” wheels.
2. Phenolic
– Rated for dynamic loads of 1,250 lbs. for 5” wheels, and 1,500 lbs. for 6” and 8” wheels.
3. Urethane on Aluminum
– Rated for dynamic loads of 1,500 lbs. (all wheel sizes).
4. Steel
– Rated for dynamic loads of 1,500 lbs. (all wheel sizes).
• Bearings
– Hard rubber and steel wheels have roller bearings; phenolic and urethane-on-aluminum wheels have sealed roller bearings.
Which Option is Right for You? Contact Douglas Equipment to Learn More!
Douglas Equipment and Shepherd Caster have both been in business since the 1950s – more than 60 years! We are authorized distributors of Shepherd products, and have in-depth understanding of all the features that are available for Bassick Honcho Casters. To learn more about ES-ER Series Casters, or any of the other Bassick Casters, please contact our team today at 800-451-0030 (or 305-888-3700 in the Miami area). Feel free to contact us online via our contact form. We look forward to answering any questions you may have!
