Reliable even at extremely low temperatures

... is a Scandinavian biotech company is a world market leader in the life sciences sector with almost 3,000 employees that produces natural additives for the food industry, agriculture and medicine.

The sensitive products are manufactured in a strictly controlled environment and must in some cases be cooled down to -60 °Celsius. This is done in specially designed cold storage rooms, where the goods are stored on cage trolleys – in some cases for several months. The trolley wheels must therefore not only endure long service lives in extreme cold, but also cope with the large differences between the individual temperature zones during transport.

In the past, the company regularly had problems with such wheels. Brittle and fragile tires, and stiff and corroded swivel housings led to outages and meant that trolleys were barely or not at all usable. This made handling harder for employees, reduced process efficiency and increased maintenance costs. The biotech producer was therefore looking for a better solution – and came across Blickle.

The wheel and roller specialists from the Blickle‘s Danish sales agency analysed the requirements of the Scandinavian company in detail on site and developed an ideal solution for this special application based on Blickle‘s LIX-POTH caster wheel series. The special feature: The groove ball bearings of the wheel and the swivel head of the swivel housing box are lubricated with a special cold grease for roller bearings, which is suitable for temperatures down to -70 °Celsius. This means the moving parts are optimally protected and work reliably even in extreme cold. During production, great care is taken to ensure that no air bubbles are created when introducing the lubricating grease. Otherwise, the transition between the extreme cold and temperatures above zero could result in the formation of condensation there. Upon re-entry into the freezer area, this condensation would freeze, impairing the function of the wheels and causing increased wear.

The wheels of the POTH series with their heavy polyamide body and a tire made of thermoplastic polyurethane offers a good performance even in extremely cold conditions: they also have low roll and swivel resistance, are quiet-running, easy on floors and do not leave streaks. They are therefore predestined for use in sensitive environments.

This solution has already proven itself in practice. The customer extensively tested the new wheels – with successful results. The LIX-POTH casters were much more resilient, functioned better and broke down less often under the adverse conditions than the previously used competitor product. The company therefore decided to permanently adopt the wheels.