Abstract: A caster wherein the wheel frame and the wheel can be locked in a first axial position of a post which is installed in an upright support serving to turnably mount the frame. When the post is moved to a second axial position relative to the support, the wheel is free to turn in the frame but the frame is releasably held against turning relative to the support. However, if it should become necessary to change the orientation of the frame relative to the support, the frame is turned with a selected force to overcome the bias of a spring which tends to maintain the frame in the selected angular position. Several different angular positions of the frame can be determined by a set of balls which are mounted in a base of the post and by the sockets of a ring-shaped female coupling member which is installed in the frame and whose sockets can receive the balls. The balls are expelled from the aligned sockets to permit turning of the frame relative to the support when the bias of the spring is overcome.

Abstract: A caster wherein the underside of the web of the wheel frame is formed with a socket for a fulcrum which is integral with and is located between two arms of a wheel brake. One arm of the brake carries a shoe which can be moved into frictional engagement with the wheel in response to downward movement of a post forming part of an actuator which is concealable in the leg of a piece of furniture or the like. The other arm of the brake is biased in a direction to move the shoe away from the wheel by a tongue of a springy plate-like member which is affixed to the underside of the web and further comprises two prongs which retain the fulcrum in the socket. The hub of the wheel is concealed behind caps which are carried by the frame, and the fulcrum as well as the plate-like member and the brake are also concealed from view.

Abstract: A caster wherein the metallic carrier for a plastic wheel frame is connected to the conductive tire of the wheel by a multi-section conductor system having a portion in the disc-shaped connector between the rim and the hub of the wheel, a portion which is connected with the outer race of an antifriction ball bearing surrounding the hub, a shaft forming part of a fulcrum for the hub of the wheel, a wire in an internal groove of one leg of the wheel frame, the devices which can be actuated to brake the wheel and to block angular movements of the frame relative to the carrier, and a spring which connects the two devices to one another. The braking and blocking devices can be actuated by a conductive plunger which is non-rotatably but axially movably installed in and contacts the carrier and can be shifted by a spring in cooperation with a rotary cam in the carrier.

Abstract: The legs of a hospital bed are mounted on discrete casters with brakes for the wheels and blocking devices for the wheel frames. The wheel frames can be unblocked to swivel in their carriers which are mounted in or on the respective legs, and contain cylinders for vertically movable plungers serving to engage or disengage the respective brakes as well as to activate or deactivate the blocking devices. At least two plungers are movable to three different positions in one of which the respective wheels are free to rotate and the respective frames are free to swivel, in another of which the wheels are braked and the frames are blocked, and in the third of which the wheels are free to rotate but the frames are blocked. This is achieved by the provision of a control system employing discrete cylinder and piston units for the casters and conduits which can supply metered quantities of hydraulic fluid from the cylinders of the respective units to the cylinders in the corresponding carriers or vice versa.

Abstract: A caster wherein the inverted U-shaped frame carries a wheel and is turnable relative to a support about a substantially vertical axis when the wheel rests on a horizontal supporting surface. The web of the frame overlies a braking pedal which can be pivoted to and from an operative position in which it blocks rotation of the wheel relative to the frame and/or blocks angular movements of the frame relative to the support. A leaf spring of the braking lever biases the latter to its inoperative position, and a pedal which is pivotably mounted in the frame can be depressed to pivot the lever to and to releasably hold the lever in the operative position. The pedal can be pivoted in a direction to permit the leaf spring to return the lever to inoperative position in response to depression of a substantially vertically reciprocable pusher which is mounted in the web of the frame.