Optimal manoeuvrability at a low noise level

… is a Czech car and engine manufacturer that belongs to a German automotive group. With roughly 33,000 employees in the Czech Republic alone, the car maker sold over 1.2 million vehicles in 2017, corresponding to sales of roughly 16 billion euros.

Noise levels are high in an assembly plant of the car maker. Just-in sequence trolleys for plant-internal transport of vehicle parts are continuously moving over the concrete floor. The floor in the hall is in fact smooth, but it is regularly punctuated by expansion joints featuring cast iron gratings.

The trolleys used are still equipped with competitor castors with non-marking grey elastic solid rubber wheels. Because these castors have been in use for some time and the rubber treads are relatively hard, the manoeuvrability is not optimal due to the relatively high rolling and swivel resistance. The noise produced by moving the just-in sequence trolleys also exceeds the specified noise protection standards. The foot guard of the castors, which is attached for safety reasons, comes into contact with the floor during crossing of the expansion joints, resulting in a short lifespan for this accessory part.

The customer would therefore like a new castor solution with significantly lower rolling and swivel resistance as well as a tread with particularly low noise properties. The spacing of the also desired foot guard to the floor must prevent contact when crossing the thresholds.

Due to the outstanding damping characteristics and the noticeable noise reduction of the soft rubber tread Blickle “SoftMotion”, the Blickle wheel series ALES offers the optimal solution for this application. The thick tread cushions in 55 Shore A, which are permanently affixed to the aluminium wheel centre, enable particularly quiet travel and are highly elastic, meaning low rolling resistance.

The robust heavy duty housing of the Blickle LH series and the stable steel foot guard with a ground clearance of 35 mm round out the wheel as an optimal and complete solution that meets all the customer requirements.

The Blickle castors of the LH-ALES series are characterised in regular operating tests by outstanding dampening characteristics and significantly improved rolling and swivel resistance. The manual handling has also been noticeably improved in this way.

The foot guard no longer hits the ground when crossing thresholds, and wear on both the castors and the floor is reduced, which lowers repair and replacement costs. Last, but not least, the car maker is excited by the clearly noticeable noise reduction from the use of the elastic soft rubber wheels Blickle “SoftMotion”.