Optimization and Analysis of a Caster Bracket

Trolleys and load carriers are provided with caster wheels attached to the bottom of the vehicle which enables the operator to move the heavy components and part assemblies with a greater ease. The Caster wheel is an assembly of wheel and a bracket/fork. The Bracket/Fork is an important part of the caster assembly which has to sustain the loads primarily due to weight of the vehicle and the weight of the goods. The aim of the present work is to study the stresses induced in the bracket and suggest a new suitable bracket design having increased the load carrying capacity and reducing the weight of the bracket with considerable reduction in overall dimensions. The FEA is performed on the Existing bracket and the modified bracket designs and the stresses were analyzed. The work deals with the optimization of caster bracket using the software packages, CATIA V5R20 for modeling and ANSYS Workbench 18.1 for finite element analysis.