Braked swivel castors make life easier by combining smooth movement with reliable stability. They swivel effortlessly, letting you change direction with ease, while the built-in brake keeps everything securely in place when needed.
You’ll find them everywhere - from industrial workspaces and medical equipment to furniture and transport carts. They’re designed to handle different surfaces, weight loads, and environments, making them a smart choice for both professional and everyday use. If you need something that rolls smoothly but stays put when it matters, braked swivel castors are the way to go.
Check out our range of braked swivel castors to find the perfect fit for your needs—built to last, easy to use, and designed for smooth movement with secure stopping when needed. With a variety of sizes and materials available, you’ll find the right castors to suit any application.
Advantages of Braked Swivel Castors
Braked swivel castors provide more control compared to regular swivel castors, thanks to their ability to lock the wheels or swivel housing when needed. While standard swivel castors allow easy movement in any direction, the added brake mechanism ensures your application stays put when you need it to, preventing any unwanted movement. This makes them a safer, more reliable choice for a variety of applications.
TENTE swivel castors with brakes offer various benefits:
Increased Safety - The locking mechanism stops unexpected movement, giving you peace of mind and stability.
Easy Maneuverability - The swivel design allows smooth, quick turns, even in tight spaces.
Secure Locking - Ensures your application stays securely in place when needed, preventing any unwanted movement.
Increased Efficiency - A secure application leads to a safer and more productive work environment, allowing for more efficient workflows.
Durability - TENTE castors are built to withstand heavy loads and frequent use without compromising on reliability.
Types of Castor Braking Mechanisms
In professional terms, the brake mechanism is usually referred to as a locking mechanism. There are several types of locking mechanisms for castors, each offering unique benefits for different needs:
Wheel Brake
A wheel brake is a manually operated pedal lock that prevents unitended movement of the wheel, while allowing the castor to swivel freely. This locking mechanism is ideal for applications, like a workstation or trolley, that need to stay still but also require easy movement.
Directional Lock
A directional locking mechanism allow to lock the swivel, while still allowing the castor wheel to rotate. Ideal for improved steering around bends, as well as for moving in a straight line over a long distance.
Total Lock
This locks both the wheel and the swivel housing, preventing all castor movement. A total lock is perfect for equipment that needs a secure standing.
Central Lock
A central lock allows for a simultaneous locking of more than one castor using a central actuation lever. A central locking mechanism can be combined directional and total locking castors, as well as with a wheel brake mechanism. Combined directional lock for improved steering around bends, as well as movement in a straight line over long distances. Also a total lock for simultaneously locking the wheel and swivel housing for a secure standing.
Intermittent Lock
The intermittent lock engages when any weight is put on the castor. In most cases, this locking mechanism prevents motion by stopping operation until the load is removed. Intermittent brakes are often used for application like office chairs or other furniture.
Fields of Application for Braked Swivel Castors
Braked swivel castors are used in a wide range of industries, providing both mobility and stability when needed.
In an industrial environment, they for example help move heavy machinery and transport carts while ensuring they stay securely in place during operation. Medical equipment like hospital beds and rolling IV stands rely on them for smooth movement combined with a firm lock when stationary. In a logistics setting, they keep applications like picking trolleys and roll cages maneuverable yet secure when loading or unloading goods. Retail and commercial spaces benefit from them in display units and mobile workstations, offering flexibility while preventing unwanted movement. Even in furniture and home applications, they’re found on office chairs, media furniture and storage units, making everyday tasks easier.
No matter the industry, braked swivel castors strike the perfect balance between movement and control, improving safety, efficiency, and convenience.
How do I choose the right Braked Swivel Castors?
Picking the Right Brake
Not all locking mechanisms work the same way, so it's important to choose one that fits your individual use case. If you need to completely lock both the wheel and the swivel, a total lock is the best choice for keeping equipment firmly in place. A directional lock is great for keeping carts moving in a straight line without drifting. If you just need to stop rolling but still want to swivel, a wheel brake does the job. Picking the
Wheel Diameter and Overall Height
The wheel diameter affects how easily your equipment moves. Bigger wheels roll smoothly over bumps and rough surfaces, making them great for heavy loads or outdoor use. Smaller wheels keep things lower to the ground, which helps with stability. You’ll also want to consider the total height of the castor to make sure it fits under your application and your equipment stays at a comfortable and practical level.
Load Capacity
One of the most important factors is ensuring the castors can support the required weight. Exceeding the recommended load capacity can lead to premature wear, difficulty in movement, or even failure of the castors. In order to determine the load capacity required for the equipment, you need to know the weight of the equipment itself and the maximum weight of the applied load, as well as, the number of wheels and castors to be used. In order to ensure that the castors can withstand the loads in the long term, the total number of castors assumed for the calculation is reduced by one.
Floor Characteristics
The type of floor the castors will be used on plays a crucial role in selecting the right tread material. For delicate surfaces like hardwood, tiles, or laminate, soft rubber or polyurethane wheels help prevent scratches and reduce noise. On rough or industrial surfaces, harder materials like nylon or metal provide better durability and performance. Choosing the right wheel tread material ensures smooth movement and protects both the castors and the floor.
Our most popular Product Families featuring Braked Swivel Castors
Each of our product families is united by specific criteria. The focus can lie on a high design standard, a special area of application or an exceptional load capacity. Based on this defined profile of characteristics, a system of design variations is available for each particular model – from the correct dimensioning and technical specifications to the required configuration. Here are some of our most popular product families featuring castors with brake functionality:
Alpha
The TENTE Alpha product family is one of our high-quality industrial castor series. These castors features a housing made of pressed steel and a variety of fitting options. The Alpha can be equipped with a directional lock for improved steering around bends, as well as moving in a straight line for long distances. It can also be equipped with a user-friendly central lock, or a total lock for simultaneously locking the wheel and swivel housing.
Alpha features durable wheels with extremely low wear and tear properties. It can also be fitted with noise reduced wheel versions to support a quite working environment. The materials used in our Alpha series Complies with RoHS and REACH regulations, meaning they do not contain polycyclic aromatic carbons orchromium(VI).
You can get more information about Alpha in our product brochure.
Levina
Levina is our highly functional design castor series featuring a patented housing design and wheels made from high grade synthetic materials. The materials are tested in our own laboratory for compliance with European standards. Non-hazardous materials are used in order to comply with the RoHS directive and REACH regulation of the European Union.
Levina benefits from extremely high shock absorption. The low-maintenance design with integrated thread guards also helps to avoid blockages. The colour of our Levina castors can be adapted to match your product design. Levina can be equipped with either a directional or a total lock. Its housing design allows for improved access to the brake pedal, and the user-friendly colour scheme - green pedal for directional lock and red pedal for total lock - imrpoves effieciency and workplace safety.
Levina is available with a various fitting options catering to your individual needs.
Anika
Anika is our highly customisable furniture castor featuring an award-winning design. The elegant housing is made of premium virgin polyamide and is highly shock absorbing. The materials are tested in our own laboratory for compliance with European standards. Non-hazardous materials are used in order to comply with the RoHS directive and REACH regulation of the European Union. The Anika is also available as "evo" version which is made of up to 98%* biomass materials originating from the castor bean.
The colours of our Anika series can be adapted to match your product design. We also offer fascinating picture prints or individual branding of the wheel cap.
Anika is available with a wheel lock with pedal for manual operation, or an intermittent brake with automatic load-dependent wheel brake, both preventing unintended movement.
*98% calculated from the total weight of synthetic material used to manufacture our product.