Design of Wheeled Caster with Damper for Silent Wagon

摘要

These days, it is highly important to carry patients, medicines and small precision parts softly and stably by silent wagons. It is desirable for the silent wagon to be equipped with excellent wheeled casters. This paper reports the experimental results of a new designed caster with urethane dampers for silent wagons. First, new small-sized urethane dampers including springs are developed, which have capacities to support heavy loads by virtue of the sandwiched urethanes among the spring's gaps. It is confirmed that the urethane damper has both large damping and high stiffness properties. Next, the mechanical design is proposed to reduce impulsive forces given toward the wagon from road bumps. The new design of the caster focuses on the center of percussion on the caster. Finally, it is verified that the impulses and vibrations to the wagon are largely reduced by both the urethane damper and the effect of the center of percussion, from the running experiments of the wagon with the new caster.