Why do suitcases have plastic wheels instead of, maybe, rubber tyres?
In: Engineering
Because you do need them to give you a smooth ride or have good traction. You need them to be easy to roll (low rolling resistance) and last a long time with lots of weight on them which means they need to be made with something hard like plastic.
Plastic is the cheapest effective option. Rubber tyres would mean less profit per suitcase (and that would be a catastrophe for greedy suitcase corporations)
Rubber tires are great, but they’re more expensive and they wear quicker than plastic. Because the weight is fairly limited, and the kinds of terrain are fairly uniform, the plastic does the job and lasts a little bit longer than rubber might at a slightly reduced cost.
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