Contents
From wheelbarrows and workshop benches, to platform trolleys and pallet jacks, businesses of all sizes depend on wheeled equipment to keep their companies moving. Depending on what your business does and how heavily it relies on its material handling equipment, the types of wheels and wheel assemblies it uses are some of its most important safety considerations.
While there’s no shortage of specialised, 100% Australian-made manufacturers of wheeled material handling equipment, the wheels and assemblies they’re equipped with aren’t always best suited for the settings they’ll be used in. Environments where high temperatures, corrosive chemicals, and even food-grade precautions are prevalent, also require wheel and assembly combinations that are conducive to those conditions. That’s why it’s no surprise that there’s a 100% Australian wheel and wheel assembly manufacturer who specialises in rolling solutions for material handling equipment.
Maximize Your ROI with Heavy Duty Industrial Wheels and Assemblies
For more than 60 years, Melbourne’s Richmond Rolling Solutions has been recognized as Australia’s premier manufacturer of top-quality industrial wheels and wheel assemblies for its most specialised material handling equipment. They understand that for a large percentage of Australian businesses, the standard wheel and wheel assembly combinations supplied with their handling equipment aren’t compatible with the jobs they’re doing. They need wheels that are stronger, more durable, and ultimately more specialized than the original equipment variants, and Richmond produces rolling gear for every condition and industrial contingency imaginable.
With a product range that features more than 2000 unique indoor and outdoor industrial wheel types, Richmond boasts one of the most extensive precision rolling gear lineups in the world, including:
- Wheels and wheel assemblies. With choices that cover every polyurethane, pneumatic, rubber, and cast iron wheel configuration possible, Richmond builds low noise/low resistance wheel and assembly combinations that are as suitable for lightweight mail trolleys as they are for heavyweight fork stackers.
- Castors. Richmond makes heavy-duty single, dual, and compound omnidirectional castor assemblies that are ideal for safely maneuvering payloads ranging in size from shopping carts and hospital beds, to warehouse floor ladders and heavy plant machinery.
- Rollers. Whether it’s the overhead sliding rollers used on hanging doors and hoist suspension systems, the V-grooved tracked rollers used on gates and linear guide systems, or the transfer and conveyor rollers on assembly lines, Richmond builds tough, long-wearing industrial rollers for all occasions.
From conductive, ISO-certified clean room wheels for pharmaceutical and electronic manufacturers, to the high load bearing, 5000kg Spheroidal Graphite Iron (SGI) industrial roller wheels used in mills and mining operations, businesses know that refitting their new and existing material handling equipment with Richmond wheels is the best way to maximize their ROI. No other brand of wheel is so closely aligned with Australia’s tough working conditions, and you only have to look at their core specifications to understand how uncompromising Richmond Engineering really is when it comes to reliability, as well as safety.
Tough Wheels For Every Material Handling Contingency
Let’s be honest: while many businesses recognize that the key to successful material handling is moving as much material as efficiently as possible, what’s more important is safety. Although most material managers and safety officers are keenly aware of the hazards of using handling equipment with insufficient lifting capacities, they’re often unaware of the risks that inadequately rated industrial wheels can pose.
Your trolleys, carts, pallet jacks, and other material handling equipment need wheels that allow them to move freely, while remaining stable enough for safe usage in any environment. Richmond’s specialised industrial wheels for sale take the lead in safety; that’s because they’re built to withstand wide ranges of workplace conditions that include:
- Extreme high and low-temperature environments like foundries and cold storage facilities where wheels and bearing assemblies can be damaged by temperature variations;
- Rough, abrasive environments like construction job sites or nurseries where rugged, foam-filled wheels are the only way to avoid punctures;
- Wet, slippery, and outdoor environments where material handling equipment, along with their wheel bearings and castor assemblies might be susceptible to rust or corrosion;
- High load-bearing environments like manufacturing or mining where extra strength and resistance to deformation are required for extended periods; and,
- Working environments where special coatings like anti-slip floorings, chemical-resistant urethanes, or electrostatic dissipative (ESD) epoxies need to be protected.
Ideally, with the commitment that businesses are expected to make toward eliminating work-related injuries associated with lifting, pushing, and pulling, the urgency for ensuring that all of their material handling equipment can be moved easily and safely couldn’t be greater. It begins with having the right wheels, which is why the most safety-conscious businesses insist on outfitting their material handling equipment with Richmond wheels.
Smart Material Choices Make the Smartest Material Handling Wheels
Where today’s businesses can’t afford to leave the reliability, durability, and safety of their wheeled equipment to coincidence, Richmond also doesn’t leave its choices of wheel production materials to chance. Different environments require different material compositions to satisfy their objectives, and every Richmond-engineered wheel and wheeled solution is built to deliver results that are centred around those material specs.
Richmond uses only premium polymers, composites, and cast materials for their wheels, each with its own unique selection of performance properties, including:
- Fire retardant, and static-resistant polyurethanes as the standard composite polymer that offers a balance of high temperature / heavy wear resistance for all environments;
- Non-marking institutional, and rebound rubber for the quiet, shock-absorbing wheels that are preferred for medical-, and research-based environments;
- High and low-temperature polymers are used for wheels where the most dramatic temperature fluctuations are likely to occur, with short peaks as high as 400°C;
- Glass-filled nylon and layered poly-nylon composites are formulated to withstand environments where exposure to mild chemicals and solvents is expected; and
- Aluminium and cast iron are the only choices when it comes to prolonged exposure to high temperatures, or for rolling over rough or irregular terrain.
Make no mistake: Richmond packs 6 decades of experience into the manufacture of every wheel and wheel assembly; and they even back up their premium-grade wheels with the highest quality bearing/race assemblies in Australia. It’s assurance that no matter the application, their wheels will always roll softly, smoothly, and safely.
The Final Word
At the end of the day, for the safety of their personnel, their products, and even their facilities, businesses need to be sure that the wheels on their plant, and material handling equipment are suited for the job at hand. Stock equipment wheels aren’t designed for true, specialised operations, which means businesses need to be prepared to invest in their own, high-quality rolling solutions.
Fortunately, businesses know that they can count on Richmond’s top-quality industrial wheels and wheel assemblies for all their equipment movement and handling needs. Every situation is different, and Richmond makes a wheel to satisfy every one of them.
