Steerable Follower Machine Skate

Overview

What it is

A steerable follower skate carries part of a machine’s weight on a turntable, so it can swivel under the load. A tow bar lets an operator or a tow unit steer it. Where a straight-line follower can only roll forward and back, this one helps the machine to turn and follow a curved route.

Why steering matters

In a plant, a machine rarely moves in a straight line from start to finish. It has to pass through doors, around other equipment and into position. A steerable follower at one end, paired with a powered unit at the other, gives the control needed to turn without dragging wheels sideways, which would damage the floor and the skates.

What decides the selection

• Load at the support point
• Turntable diameter and design
• Turning radius and the space available on the route
• Installed height, matching the other units in the set
• Floor strength, slopes and joints
• Tow bar type, hand or machine steered

Matching the set

All units should work at the same height. Steering points also change how the load is shared, so the set-up must be planned as a whole. The rating of one skate cannot be added to another and reported as the safe load of the machine.

Safety

Moving a heavy machine is risky. The load, the route and the floor must be checked in advance, and the move should be done by trained people with a clear plan for stopping and for loss of control. No fixed rating is stated on this page; ratings are given for the exact units in the quotation, based on your machine and route.

Ordering

A suitable combination of powered, straight and steerable units is proposed from the machine weight, its footprint, the support points, the turning space and the floor type.

Matching the steerable follower in a move

The steerable follower exists to solve one problem: corners. When a long machine is moved on skates, the support points on the inside of a turn travel a shorter path than those on the outside. Fixed-wheel followers fight this and drag. With a turntable and a tow bar, this follower turns with the machine.

Use it opposite or behind the powered skate (MM-MSK) when the route has bends, doorways or a rotation at the destination. Use the straight-line follower (MM-SFK) for supports on a straight path, where it is simpler and lighter on maintenance. Many sets combine both, with steerable followers at the corners of the machine and straight ones in between.

As a rule, give the tow bar enough clearance to swing, and keep the bar angle within the limits we give you. Send the machine layout, the route with turning radius and the heights of each support point, and we propose the mix.