Are you having problems with the mobility of your office furniture, even though the furniture itself looks good? Do you find that the casters on your office furniture don’t look as good as you would like? Do you find that you need improved functionality from your chairs that is not currently present? Douglas Equipment is here to help with almost 60 years of experience in supplying casters to meet the unique needs of our customers. Located in South Florida, we are able to supply the caster needs of customers in the United States, South America and the Caribbean. Our expert staff can help you choose the casters you need to bring new life to your furniture. Have Your Casters Become Worn or Function Poorly? If your casters are not functioning as well as you expect you may have one of two problems.
- Worn Casters
Caster wheels on even the finest furniture will often wear prematurely simply because the furniture OEM—after having used the best materials they could to construct the furniture—simply threw the cheapest casters they could on the furniture. Sometimes it’s the case that if they can roll it out their factory door, what do they care about it after that? It is common that furniture manufacturers do not consider rollability of the casters they buy for their manufacturing process. Douglas Equipment can give your furniture the rollability upgrade it needs, with a durable, good looking caster that rolls as well as the rest of the piece looks. Or sometimes the soft tread material of even a quality caster in a harsh environment will wear out. If this is the case, why throw away the entire piece of furniture just because the casters have become damaged? By choosing a new set of casters with the right wheels for your floor condition you can make your chair or office furniture function like new at a fraction of the cost of replacing the entire piece.
- Wrong Caster for Flooring
If your casters are new, you may not have the right casters for your floor surface conditions. For instance, carpeted floors pose very different challenges than smooth floors, and concrete floors can interact with casters differently than wood floors. The main item to consider when trying to overcome the problem of floor conditions is the material of the caster wheel. For instance, on a concrete floor you will want a hard wheel, but not one made of steel or cast iron that will cut into the floor. On a smooth wood floor you will want a soft urethane wheel, or even the industrial Performa rubber, and on a carpeted floor you will want to consider a metal, hard rubber or hard synthetic wheel for best traction. Both casters recommended below can be ordered in different types of wheel material.
- Shepherd Replacement Chair-Pivot Boss: These twin-wheel chair casters come in a Black finish and have a nylon or urethane tread material for good wear. They come in one wheel size for a 75 pound dynamic load capacity and have a classic twin wheel office chair look.
- Shepherd Pacer Twin Wheel: These swivel casters come in two sizes taking loads from 75 to 100 pounds, have nylon or urethane tread material and come in a flat black, satin chrome, Windsor antique, bright chrome, and brass plate finishes. This caster in the 2” size can include a brake in the design if required for your application.
Have Your Casters Lost Their Decorative Finish? If your casters have lost their decorative finish, or did not have a decorative finish to start with, you can quite simply replace them with a much nicer looking caster to improve the visual appearance of your chairs or office furniture. Across our entire catalog of caster designs there are many different finishes including:
- Bright chrome
- Bright brass
- Metalized brass
- Satin chrome
- Windsor antique
All you need to do is choose the look that is right for you. Two of our best looking casters are the Shepherd Baron Series and the Shepherd Metal Tread Ball. The Baron Series has a classy looking ball caster with a dome in the finish of your choice, while the Metal Tread Ball casters are all metal casters with a classic satellite look and full swivel functionality.
- Shepherd Baron Series: These casters have double ball bearing raceways for smooth motion and are ideal for furniture, fixtures, medical equipment and office equipment. The 2″ model is heat treated for better wear, has a hard synthetic spherical polyolefin wheel, and the finish options are bright chrome, metalized brass, and Windsor antique for a very pleasing look. The units can even be RoHS complaint upon request.
- Shepherd Metal Tread and Soft Tread Ball: These decorative casters—metal tread for carpeted floors, and Soft tread for more sensitive coverings–come in three sizes for a 40 to 100 pound dynamic load capacity. They come in finishes of Bright Brass, Bright Chrome and Windsor Antique. This classic design is seen on many office furnishings.
Do You Want Improved Functionality From Your Casters? After you start using an office chair you might find that it doesn’t do quite what you would like it to do off the shelf. This might be because the chair moves when you don’t want it to or it doesn’t move when you need it to. For this problem, you might want to look at a chair caster that incorporates a self-braking mechanism. There are two self-braking options that work well: a compression brake that holds the caster in place when weight is applied and a decompression brake that holds the caster in place when weight is removed. The first braking option would stop the chair from moving when a person was seated, while the second option would allow for movement when the person was seated, but would stop the chair from rolling away when the person rose from the chair.
- Shepherd Self-Braking Chair Caster: This caster comes in a Black finish Urethane twin wheel design that holds a dynamic load of 75 pounds. This caster comes with either of the two braking mechanisms as desired, compression or decompression.
How Can Douglas Equipment Help? Since 1955, Douglas Equipment has helped people just like you across the United States, South America and the Caribbean to identify the right casters for their unique requirements. Contact us today with any questions you may have and let us help you choose the right casters for your furniture. It will give the look of your furniture new life and make it useful again.
