Casters may be one of the smallest pieces of production equipment in your commercial kitchen or bakery – but they’re one of the most important. They play a crucial role in the mobility and maneuverability of your racks and ultimately determine if your kitchen is free-flowing, efficient, productive and profitable.
Maintaining your oven racks is vital for your production efficiency, so it follows that maintaining the casters (including the wheel, the swivel bearing and bracket) they run on is vital too!
At Schaumburg Specialties, we’re experts in casters and caster maintenance. We’ve been custom building strong, durable, reliable racks – and the casters that go with them – for over 40 years, and we know what it takes to keep casters in tip top condition.
We can provide you with all the equipment and advice you need to maintain your casters yourself, or we can easily replace them for you at our manufacturing plant in Schaumburg, IL. If you’ve got the racks we’ve got the casters you need!
Read on to discover why keeping your casters in tip top condition can be so crucial for your business and our top tips for maintaining and replacing them.
Why Is Casters Maintenance So Important?
As we’ve already established, having casters that are in great condition and can keep your racks mobile and easily maneuverable is vital for the efficiency of your operations.
Without regular maintenance, your casters could wear out quickly and become worn, damaged or misaligned. Flat spots can appear, which can lead to unstable racks being dragged along the floor, swaying or tipping over and dropping and wasting your product. Racks can also become damaged going in and out of your oven if their casters aren’t functioning properly or are poorly maintained.
All this would of course be disastrous for your workflow efficiency and your profits, not to mention a health and safety hazard for your employees.
Maintaining your casters properly, however, will help to keep your racks stable and your production operations running smoothly. It will also prolong the life of your casters and ensure you don’t have to pay out for repairs and replacements further down the line.
At Schaumburg Specialties, we recommend that you carry out a monthly inspection of your casters. For a full and comprehensive guide to maintaining your casters and keeping them in tip top condition, check out our Caster and Wheel Maintenance Program, available to download from our website.
Our Top Tips For Maintaining Your Casters
Usually casters are the first things to go with heavy equipment usage – but happily, they are easy to maintain and replace. All the parts you need to maintain and repair your casters yourself – such as a stainless steel hardware kit and grease cartridges and kits are available on our website. You just need some simple hand tools or a battery operated impact driver to help you get the job done more quickly!
Read on for our top tips on maintaining your casters and keeping them – and your racks and production line – running smoothly.
Remove Debris
When maintaining your casters, the first thing you’ll need to do is safely lie your rack on its side and visually inspect your casters for any dirt or debris or rusting occurrence.
Then, simply remove the debris from the wheel and swivel bearings. If you find extensive rusting on your casters, this will have to be removed (and likely, your casters replaced), so you should consider taking your racks out of service until this task can be performed.
Grease, grease and grease again!
Once you’ve removed any debris from your casters, it’s time to make sure they’re well greased! It’s very important to keep your casters lubricated and to grease them regularly. Greasing prevents your casters seizing up and affecting the maneuverability of your racks and interrupting your free-flowing production line.
However, it’s very important to make sure you use the right grease for the right casters. For high-temperature casters, for example, you’ll need to use high temperature, food grade grease to lubricate them. For casters that are used in a freezer or a chiller, you’ll need low temperature grease. Our high performance grease cartridge is great in extreme temperatures and in both freezers and ovens.
Remember, you’ll need to re-grease your casters every time they go through a rack washer, to keep them ship shape and firing on all cylinders.
Lubrication of your casters should be carried out on a monthly basis at least, or more often if there is high frequency usage. If you need some instruction on how to grease your casters, check out this step by step guide in our video.
How to grease casters
Replacing Your Casters With Schaumburg Specialties
Of course, sometimes maintenance and repair of your casters is no longer an option and the only solution is to replace them.
If you find yourself in this situation, we can help! We have a wide variety of replacement casters, in-stock and available to order now on our website. If you’re not sure which type of casters would be best for your racks and your working environment, have a read of our blog on the key things to consider when choosing new casters and contact one of our expert team who can advise you on a tailor made solution for your business.
If you’re planning to replace your casters yourself, take a look at our simple step by step demo video on how to remove and replace caster wheels on SHOPCraft racks.
How to remove and replace casters
However, if you don’t think replacing your casters is a job you want to take on, or you don’t have the time to carry out what can be a very time consuming task, just get in touch. Our team is ready and waiting to replace your casters for you at our Schaumburg, Illinois manufacturing facility!
Don’t forget, if you custom build your racks and other production equipment with Schaumburg Specialties, you can optimize each rack with a specific set of casters that are built to perform for your unique business requirements.
All our racks and casters are built from premium quality American materials and manufactured on American soil and we stand by the quality and standard of our master craftsmen. If, however, you’ve bought casters from our SHOPCraft range and find that you have a problem with them that is down to premature or unexpected wear and requires a more detailed investigation, we’d be happy to take a look and help you identify a solution. Please contact us today with any questions.
Maintain & Replace Your Casters With Schaumburg Specialties
Here at Schaumburg Specialties, your productivity is our passion. Regardless of your spatial, budgetary or operational requirements, our team of SHOPCraft experts can design and manufacture the casters you need to transform the productivity at the heart of your business. To find out more about how we can help, contact us for a free quote.