Hot Forged Casters

RWM 70 and 95 series are hot forged casters. The hot forged caster design provides some advantages over cold forged casters. Hot forged casters are manufactured from medium carbon steel known as C1045. The increased carbon in this steel causes the metal to be harder, gives it greater tensile strength, and enables the metal to be subjected to heat hardening processes.

The advantages of hot forging are that a stronger steel can be forged into the desired shape, deeper parts can be formed, and the grain structure of the metal can be controlled to flow in the desired direction to give optimum strength to the parts.

The disadvantages of the hot forging process are that close tolerances cannot be obtained and smooth finishes cannot be controlled unless the parts are machined. Additionally, the machined parts are of no advantage over cold forged parts unless they are hardened. RWM flame hardens its hot forged caster ball raceways which gives the raceways longer wearing characteristics and still leaves the forged metal in a tough state without stress risers. The hardness of hot forged flame hardened raceways is 550 Brinell vs. 500 Brinell of cold forged raceways.