For customer-facing businesses, keeping up appearances is essential – and Pallet Truck Shop is helping retail outlets, supermarkets and shop floors everywhere maintain their image with polyurethane pallet truck wheels that are totally silent.
As one of the country’s leading suppliers of pallet trucks and other associated equipment, Pallet Truck Shop has built a reputation for helping customers with their queries – and one of the most common questions they team are asked is whether there’s any discernible difference between PU and nylon pallet truck wheels.
The answer is an important one, especially for businesses where pallet trucks might be used around customers – supermarkets, shop floors, showrooms and retail outlets, for example. Polyurethane wheels have been specially developed to be silent and smooth in their operation, perfect for the shiny shop floors that are often used in customer-facing environments. Nylon wheels – the other common choice – are not suited for use in these environments. They can cause noise pollution, and their level of grip is not as high on smooth surfaces, which can result in accidents or injuries to staff or customers.
Phil Chesworth, Managing Director of Pallet Truck Shop, says, “It may seem like a small detail to some, but choosing the correct wheels for your specific application is essential. The wrong wheels can irritate and disturb customers with noise pollution, and in the worst-case scenario, they could cause an injury or damage products by slipping on the smooth floor.”
He adds, “For customer-facing environments, polyurethane wheels are the best choice. They run smoothly and have great grip on polished floors, so employees can stack shelves or replenish stock without disturbing – or even harming – their customers.”
Polyurethane wheels were developed by engineers as a replacement for the old rubber and plastic wheels. The material is oil and solvent resistant, which means the wheels aren’t affected by spillages or puddles, and it has a higher load-bearing capacity than rubber. They superior noise-reducing properties when compared to the older plastic and metal wheels – the material dampens sound and vibrations for noiseless operation.
Nylon wheels do have their uses in other environments. For warehouses, distribution bays, construction sites and other industrial settings where noise pollution is a natural part of the workplace, nylon wheels are the best choice. They have superior grip on floors that may be slightly uneven, and can withstand the kind of debris that might totally ruin polyurethane wheels. Durable, robust and built to handle anything, nylon wheels are a customer’s best bet for stock rooms, factories, distribution bays and other rough-and-tumble environments.