Precision tubing for the retail sector
The technical challenge of retail
The end user does not look after the product
A supermarket trolley is pushed by a different person every day, loaded to the limit, over kerbs and ramps, and left outdoors overnight. There is no preventive maintenance: there is use and neglect. The tubing has to survive that cycle for years, and the wheel has to keep turning without squeaking once the trolley has thousands of trips behind it.
The tubing is on show and it is part of the brand
A chrome-plated display with a pitted finish, or with the imperfections of the steel surfacing through the plating, does not communicate quality: it communicates neglect, and it does so at the exact point where the customer decides to buy. On the shelf, the finish of the metal is part of the product.
Long runs and tight margins
Trolley and retail furniture manufacturers produce in volume and cannot over-specify material "just in case". The answer is not more wall thickness: it is exactly the right wall thickness with the right strength and formability.
Applications where you will find us
Shopping trolleys and self-service trolleys
- Wheel axles and castor systems With the OPTIM range we control outer diameter, bore and wall thickness simultaneously, with an internal weld bead ≤ 0.15 mm. The axle fits with exactly the clearance specified in the drawing: no play, no parasitic friction and none of the squeaking that gives away badly calibrated tubing.
- Frame, chassis and handle Thin walls with the formability for tight bends without cracking or ovalisation. Contained weight without giving up strength.
- Non-circular profiles Square, oval or flat oval section to EN 10305-5, when the trolley design calls for it.
Chrome-plated displays
- Direct chrome plating, with no prior polishing The PREMIUM range leaves the factory with a bright, non-porous outer surface: the processor saves the polishing stage before the plating bath and prevents marks in the steel from surfacing after chrome plating.
- Chrome, zinc and brass plating The tubing behaves consistently across all three treatments, so a display range can vary its finish without changing base material.
- Screen printing and decorative finishes When the display has to carry branding, a reference or a distinguishing finish.
Store equipment
- Exposed tubular structures Same criterion as for displays: the tubing is a visible surface and has to reach the plating bath in the right condition.
- Moving parts Gondola wheels, guides, folding and lifting mechanisms: where there is rotation, there is OPTIM; where there is a piston, there is PRECISE.
The right range for retail
OPTIMWheel axles for trolleys, gondolas and mobile displays. Internal weld bead ≤ 0.15 mm
PREMIUMEverything on show in store: displays, clothes rails, chrome-plated structures. Bright outer finish for direct electroplating
PRECISEMechanisms with internal sliding: gas springs, adjustable columns, lifting systems. Mirror bore
Not just the tubing: the finished part
- Coil format or cut-to-lengthCoil supply eliminates end-of-bar scrap on component manufacturers' automated lines. Cut-to-length delivers the tubing at exactly the length specified in the drawing, ready to load into the machine.
- Tubing transformed into a component ready to assembleWhen the customer needs it, we do not deliver tubing: we deliver the finished part. Cutting, bending, punching, end forming, threading, machining and surface finishing —to drawing— so that it reaches the assembly line ready to fit. Fewer suppliers to manage and less intermediate handling.
- Documentary certification with every deliveryWe issue certification to EN 10204-2.2 (declaration of conformity with non-specific inspection results) or EN 10204-3.1 (inspection certificate with specific results for the batch supplied), depending on what the customer's quality system requires. In-house laboratory at the plant.
Why retail manufacturers trust Delmàs
A family-owned business in La Roca del Vallès, specialising exclusively in small-diameter welded and calibrated steel tubing (⌀ 3–25 mm).
Below 8 mm, the supply of precision calibrated tubing all but disappears. That is where we have been working for decades, and that is exactly where your wheel axle sits.
Few companies solve both the axle that turns silently and the structure that goes straight to chrome plating. Delmàs manufactures both ranges.
Manufacturing powered 100% by renewable energy since 2006, with two photovoltaic self-consumption installations at the plant.
Questions we hear every week
Why do the wheels of a shopping trolley squeak?
Almost always because of the axle. If the tubing acting as the axle retains a pronounced internal weld bead, or the diameter is not calibrated, play and friction appear: the wheel vibrates, makes noise and wears out sooner. The OPTIM range keeps the internal weld bead at ≤ 0.15 mm and controls the diameter to a hundredth of a millimetre.
Do you manufacture the tubing or distribute it?
We manufacture it. Delmàs has been a manufacturer of welded and calibrated tubing since 1956, at its plant in La Roca del Vallès (Barcelona). We work from the customer's drawing, not from a standard catalogue.
Does the tubing arrive ready for chrome plating?
Yes. The PREMIUM range is manufactured with a bright, non-porous outer surface, suitable for direct chrome, zinc or brass plating, with no prior polishing stage. That is what prevents imperfections in the steel from appearing after the plating bath.
Can you manufacture a size that does not exist on the market?
Yes, that is our speciality. If your trolley needs 8 × 1.1 mm and the market only offers 8 × 1 mm, we manufacture 8 × 1.1 mm.
Do you deliver the finished component or just the tubing?
Both. As well as tubing in coil or cut to length, we transform the tubing into a finished component ready to assemble: bent, punched, end formed, machined and with whatever surface finish the drawing requires.