How to determine the most suitable furniture castor?
Furniture castors and wheels are generally characterised by their smooth rolling characteristics, compact design and relatively high load-bearing capacity. To find the most suitable furniture castor, a number of factors play a role, which we briefly explain below.
Hard and soft flooring
For hard floors, such as tiles, flagstones, laminate, parquet, gravel grain floors, poured floors or concrete floors, furniture castors with soft tread are generally used. Think of furniture castors with a tread made of Polyurethane (PU or TPU) or Elastomer (TPE or TPR).
Hard furniture castors are especially recommended for soft floors such as carpets, rugs and carpetted floors. In the case of high-pile carpets, it is best to choose the largest possible wheel diameter for optimal rolling performance.
Load-bearing capacity
For safety, it is very important to consider the load-bearing capacity of the furniture castors and wheels The basic guideline in the case of 4 castors is; The weight of the furniture piece itself + the maximum load (weight of person or goods) is divided by 3. The result is the appropriate load capacity of the furniture castor.
A practical example: The chair weighs 10kg. The person who can sit on it maximum 110kg. So the total weight is 120kg. Then 120kg is divided by 3. The result is 40kg and that is the load capacity required per wheel.
If the wheels are used on a rough bumpy surface, such as outdoors on brick paving, it is advisable to divide the total weight by 2 instead of 3. Based on the previous example, this gives a load capacity of 60 kg per wheel.
Diameter of the furniture wheel
The wheel diameter of a furniture wheel has a direct influence on its rolling and swivelling behaviour. Although a larger wheel runs smoother, it requires more space to swivel. In addition, the size may be undesirable in terms of appearance or installation height. In the final choice of wheel diameter, at least the type of flooring and the load-bearing capacity must be considered.
How are furniture castors attached?
Furniture castors can be mounted in various ways. There is a choice of mounting plates, plain or circlip stems or threaded stems.
Furniture castors with mountingplate fittings are often used on upholstered furniture, TV furniture and cabinets. Furniture castors with plain stems, with or without circlip ring, are frequently used under office chairs and office furniture. Common stem sizes are Ø10mm or Ø11mm. The threaded stem fittings are available in M8 and M10 and can be found in all mentioned examples.
To fix furniture wheels in metal furniture legs, special castor adaptors are available to be slid and clamped in. For wooden furniture legs, panels or furniture boards we supply screw-in and knock-in nuts.
Retrofitting furniture castors under existing chairs
Sometimes it is desirable to retrofit castors under dining chairs. Please note: this is only possible with chairs and tables whose legs are perpendicular to the floor! This is because angled fitted chair castors can no longer swivel, hence.
Chair castors are generally swivel castors. For tables and other pieces of furniture, a combination of fixed and swivel castors can sometimes be more sensible in terms of manoeuvrability.
Also bear in mind that fitting furniture castors afterwards also increases the overall height of the piece of furniture. Sometimes this is desirable, but often not because the chair no longer fits under the table, for example. In addition, the furniture should be of sufficient strength and quality to be fitted with castors.
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