Caster Connection: A company spearheaded by safety

Caster Connection, manufacturer of casters and wheels, puts safety at the forefront of its products and initiatives. Started in the trunk of a car by Sally Hughes in 1987, the company is dedicated to developing the most innovative and optimal solutions to deliver enhanced ergonomics safety and efficiency to every partner. Hughes founded her company after discovering that many businesses needing casters were unsure about where to buy them or who to buy them from. This showed her that there was a niche to be filled in the industry: being a trusted partner and providing clients with safe caster and wheel solutions.

At the company’s start, Hughes made a creative suggestion to General Motors Corporation, that they then used. This partnership leveraged Caster Connection as an industry leader and because of Hughes’ dedication to safety, the manufacturing industry then intensified its focus to reduce on-the-job injuries, which drove Caster Connection’s mission to provide more advanced ergonomic solutions.

Today, Caster Connection strives to be a company that clients can trust and gain peace of mind from for their caster and wheel needs. Each caster is intentionally made with features to keep workers safe and workflow streamlined. Below are a few examples of top performing products developed with worker safety in mind:

CC Apex: Widely recognized for its distinctive orange color, the CC Apex is used across industries from industrial to medical, this caster handles high load requirements and offers a product that dramatically reduces the force needed for pushing and pulling. The wheel is purposefully designed with a fully rounded doughnut tread, which provides shock absorption properties, durability, grip, noise-reduction, and more room for the rebound resilience.

CC Nylex: A heavy duty and ergonomic choice for heavy loads. The CC Nylex absorbs impact without breakdown and is ideal for environments where heavy carts are manually pushed.

CC Stout: Has the capability to carry extremely heavy loads while offering the same ergonomics standards and safety as other company casters. Additionally, you don’t sacrifice maneuverability for heavy loads and the caster resists damage by organic diluters, including most cleaning and chemical solutions..

New Ergonomics Study

One of the primary aims of improving ergonomics in material handling is to prevent lower back injuries. Since back injuries cost companies billions of dollars each year and cause pain and suffering for thousands of employees, companies need a reliable way to improve ergonomics in their facilities. Improving equipment, specifically casters, to decrease push/pull can significantly improve ergonomic initiatives. However, in order to verify that push/pull has improved, practitioners need a reliable way to measure push/pull forces.

For this reason, Caster Connection collaborated with The OSU SRI (Ohio State University Spine Research Institute) for a study on measuring push/pull standards. This study was commissioned within the CDMI (Center for Disruptive Musculoskeletal Innovations), which is funded and supported by the NSF (National Science Foundation). The results of this study reveal that many practitioners are putting workers at risk for a lower back injury because of non-real-world measurements.

Study findings include:

• In order to be accurate for real-life situations, acceleration in testing should be much higher than ISO guidelines advise
• Workers are injuring themselves more quickly than guidelines suggest and before they even realize it
• Current guidelines do not reflect how people are using carts in real-life situations
• The force required to push a cart differs from the force required to pull a cart and people don’t typically test pulling

Legacy of Success

Caster Connection’s expert solutions staff has more than a century of combined experience in the caster and material handling industry. This has helped them provide the most educated and safest options for to match their clients’ needs. Caster Connection is focused on continued success as a company that clients can trust and gain peace of mind from for their caster and wheel needs.

Caster Connection has been recognized for their innovative solutions for moving heavy equipment and have used its experience across a wide array of industries including the automotive industry, food service, commercial laundry and bakery industries. More than 30 years later, Caster Connection serves thousands of companies throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.

For more information about Caster Connection and their products visit https://casterconnection.com/