Have you ever rolled a caster over your foot? Depending on how much weight it was bearing, it may have caused minor and temporary discomfort, or it may have caused a more serious foot injury. Casters are often used to support heavy loads in commercial workplaces. As a result, rolling a caster over your foot may result in injury. There are toe guards available, however, to prevent this from happening.
What Are Toe Guards?
Toe guards are cage-like accessories for casters. Their primary purpose is to minimize the risk of foot injury associated with casters. You’ll still be able roll casters with toe guards; the toe guards simply create a barrier around the casters.
Some casters come with toe guards. Other casters support toe guards. The former type of toe guards are permanent, meaning you can’t remove or replace them.
How Toe Guards Work
You might be wondering how toe guards work exactly. There are different types of toe guards, some of them use a different design than others. Nonetheless, all toe guards create a physical barrier around casters. You can use chair mats as well.
Most toe guards consist of a metal or polymer cage. Within the cage is the caster. Toe guards have several bars that wrap around the bottom of the caster close to the floor. If you accidentally roll the caster towards your foot, your foot will likely bump into the low-sitting bars.
When to Use Toe Guards
You may want to use toe guards when rolling heavy objects in the workplace. The risk of foot injury is greater when rolling heavy objects as opposed to lighter objects. Toe guards won’t eliminate the risk of foot injury, but they are still worth using. They’ll create a barrier around the casters so that you are less likely to run the casters over your foot.
Toe guards are also useful in environments with limited visibility. When rolling objects at night, for instance, you may want to use toe guards. If you’re unable to see what’s in front of you, you may accidentally roll the casters over your foot or another worker’s foot.
Keep in mind that toe guards can make it difficult to roll casters over rugs, carpeted floors, ramps and other inclined surfaces. You may have to manually lift the object to get the casters over these inclined surfaces. With toe guards, casters require a flat and level surface on which to roll.
