Heavy duty castor for autonomous unit
A heavy duty castor from Blickle has been customised for a driverless transport system.
On the search for fitting castors for its new driverless transport system (DTS), a drive specialist chose to rely on Blickle.
The company’s engineers developed a custom heavy duty twin wheel castor with a special braking system. The component reliably accepts heavy loads and enables safe and energy-efficient travel.
The development of a new autonomous, self-organising driverless transport system (DTS) placed special demands on the castors. These were to be equipped with an electromagnetically controlled braking solution. The transport system has a payload of 1,000kg, requiring a load capacity of 500kg per castor. The DTS moves at a speed of one metre per second and can lift containers up to 80mm. The positioning accuracy of +/- two millimetres must be guaranteed. This requires wheels with extremely smooth rolling performance. There was also another design challenge to solve: The ground clearance of the platform is a mere 30cm, meaning a limit to the mounting height of the castor.
In consideration of the clearly defined requirements, the Blickle engineers recognised quickly that a standard product would not be suitable. The experts eventually decided on a special heavy duty twin wheel castor based on type LSD-GBS-82K. They developed a custom version with a low mounting height and large load capacity. The castor consists of a compact bracket made of robust cast and forged components. The elastic polyurethane tread Blickle Besthane Soft offers good floor preservation and maximum operational comfort, with very low rolling resistance.
