Free Sample
The Complete Handbook of File Carts
A practical reference for buyers, owners, and resellers of office file carts
by Alumigogo Books
Chapter 1: Understanding File Carts
A file cart is a wheeled platform designed to move documents, files, binders, and other office materials from one location to another. It sounds simple, and at its core it is. But the moment you start looking at real carts in real offices, you notice something important: they are not all the same. A cart that works beautifully in a mailroom will be wrong for a records archive. A cart that moves smoothly down a wide hospital corridor will jam in the narrow aisle of a law office. Understanding what a file cart actually is means understanding how its design responds to the physical demands of moving heavy, awkward loads repeatedly and safely.
Start with the obvious: a file cart is a load-bearing device. It exists because paper is heavy. A standard filing cabinet drawer filled with letter-size folders of paper weighs roughly 40 to 50 pounds per fully packed inch of drawer space. A single four-drawer cabinet can hold well over 200 pounds of paper. Transferring those files to a cart, moving them across a building, or delivering them to an archive means supporting a load that may exceed your own body weight. The cart's frame, shelf, casters, and handles all carry that load, and each of those components is engineered under constraints you rarely notice until something fails.
Consider the frame. Most file carts are built from welded steel tube, usually square or round section, with a thickness measured in gauge. A typical