Moving vessels with swivel castors

An industrial load mounted on all swivel castors has the advantage of a very small turning circle, making them highly manoeuvrable. They are commonly used in the Pharmaceutical, Food, Textile and Chemical industries during the manufacture and movement of raw materials and finished product.

The disadvantage is that it is not easy to control in which direction each castor turns as the load is moved (it can behave like a supermarket trolley with a ‘wonky’ wheel). This exaggerates the forces required to both move the vessel and steer the vessel in the intended direction of travel and then position it accurately.

The disadvantage is that because each swivel castor is free to rotate in any direction, the load is highly sensitive to any slopes and cambers on the floor and prone to ‘sliding downhill’ as it is moved. This is a challenge for the manual handling of process vessels and carts as it requires additional upper-body effort not only to move the load but, also to accurately position and steer the load (people often describe it as trying to move a supermarket trolley that has a ‘wonky’ wheel). This often results in even modest sized loads (typically 1,000 – 2,000Kg) requiring two or more people to move them safely.

The Nu-Star PowerTug is specifically designed to overcome these issues and enable a single person to both move and accurately steer these types of industrial loads.