Air Casters - Heavy Duty or Standard

This is a question we are often asked. At first, most people think that they need a heavy air caster system for their load moving needs. However, this is not necessarily so, mainly because a standard air caster system has some benefits over the heavy duty models.

Standard air caster load moving systems:

When we talk about lift and weight capacity, we usually talk about the maximum weight that the load moving system can move. However, air bearings do thrive on weight. The heavier the load, the better they perform. Because of this, we often need to consider its lowest weight capacity.

How can you have a lowest weight capacity? As we now know thatair bearings thrive on weight, and the heavier the better, the air bearings themselves are unlikely to perform to their optimum with a very light load on board. Without much weight on board the air bearings will not have sufficient work to do and will only raise according to the weight of the load, and if this is light, then they are going to perform poorly - and possibly not at all.

So, no matter what weight you have to shift, we would generally advise that it must be at least 25% of the system's maximum weight capacity. This will ensure that sufficient weight is placed on the air bearings to cause it to operate correctly.

For example: a standard SAK12-4 square aluminum air caster system has a maximum weight capacity of 4000 pounds (1818kgs). Using the 25% advisory, the miniumum weight that this system should be asked to move is around 1000 pounds (453 kgs).

Example 2: If you have a machine to move, or typical load, that weighs in the region of 500 pounds (226 kgs), then the above SAK12-4 system will not be suitable for this load. This is because the load weighs far less than the 25% advisory. If placed on the system, it just wouldn't be enough to cause the air bearings to operate correctly and all sorts of problems could ensue. In this case, we would advise you to drop to a different type of system that is designed to carry lighter loads in the 500 pound region.

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Heavy duty air caster load moving systems:

A heavy duty air caster system will not automatically perform much better than its standard counterpart. The HD models do have a weight capacity that is virtually double the standard weight capacities. They will also use more compressed air than a standard system.

For instance: a standard 22-inch air bearing uses 12 scfm when in full load mode. So a set of four would have a total scfm requirement of around 48. If you switch to the heavy duty air casters, the scfm requirement will increase to around 64.

It is always best to ask your Hovair System contact about the advantages and disavantages of standard and heavy duty air bearings.

Remember, we have an excellent sales and support team to help you with your load moving needs. We can easily explain most things to you, and also advise you of any options that may be available.

Contact us today for full details on how we can help with your load moving needs.

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