Column cart or cabinet cart? How to choose

Two designs, two jobs

A column cart is built around a height-adjustable column that carries a monitor, an all-in-one panel PC or a laptop, together with a keyboard tray. It is made for documentation and screen work: step up, set the height for sitting or standing, enter the data, move on. There is a compartment for a fat or thin client and a worktop, but no storage in the usual sense. A cabinet cart adds a body under the worktop. Drawers, compartments, ISO modules and lockable sections travel with the workstation, so materials, consumables, medication or a label printer stay on board. On a hospital ward that is the nursing or medication cart; in goods receipt it is the station that brings the printer and the labels along.

Footprint and manoeuvrability

Column carts take up little floor space and stay agile in corridors, patient rooms and narrow aisles. EasyCart runs on twin-wheel castors with brakes, Ø 100 mm, optionally Ø 125 mm; VexioCart and ProCart use Ø 125 mm. Cabinet carts are wider by definition — BaseCart alone is available in widths from 50 to 90 cm — and need more room to turn and to park. Weight counts too: AluCart uses light anodised aluminium profiles on a ZARGES chassis and stays easy to push, while SilentCart is built in a sandwich construction that makes it extremely quiet, which matters wherever noise disturbs people working or resting nearby.

Load capacity and mounting options

Screen mounting is where the two families differ most. EasyCart carries a tilt-and-swivel VESA mount for up to 11 kg. VexioCart and ProCart use a spring-assisted VESA 75/100 mount, tilt ±20°, for up to 14 kg, and the ProCart chassis is rated up to 80 kg overall. On cabinet carts the screen sits on a rotating and tilting lift arm, VESA 75/100, up to 8 kg on BaseCart and NovoCart — enough for a standard monitor, while heavier setups belong on a column. Cable routing is a column-cart strength: VexioCart hides the cable chain inside the column, ProCart routes data and power lines separately and locks the access to the cable management. Every cart can be fitted with a True Flat monitor with protective glass in 24″, 27″ or 32″, disinfectable input devices, hand scanners and either a lean LiFePO4 power supply or an all-in-one panel PC with swappable batteries.

The column carts

EasyCart is the slim, agile entry point: a small footprint, continuous gas-spring height adjustment and a worktop with a compartment for a laptop or client. VexioCart keeps the slim design but adds stability and load capacity, with a modular column that takes accessories at any time — a client box and drawers, for instance — on a die-cast aluminium chassis by the German manufacturer iTD. ProCart is the cable specialist: its column carries an integrated cable chain that keeps data and power lines apart, and a rubber lip with a cover gives quick, lockable access to the cable management.

The cabinet carts

BaseCart stands on proven Optiplan aluminium chassis and covers everything from the compact hybrid cart to high-capacity versions with suspension files and drawers at custom heights. AluCart, on a ZARGES chassis, can be reconfigured without tools whenever the workflow changes, in three sizes: 5055A, 7055A and 9055A. SilentCart, based on function and ISO carts by Schmitz u. Söhne, is the quiet one, with an antimicrobial coating and dust-tight rubber seals on drawers and doors, in sizes 5060S, 7060S and 8060S. NovoCart uses the robust Novocal construction with a melamine-coated E1 body and smooth surfaces that are easy to clean. HinzCart is the fully customisable multi-purpose cart — space-saving roller shutter, various locking systems including electronic ones, made in Germany largely from renewable raw materials.

XL variants and a short checklist

All three column carts are available as an XL version. XL means a wider keyboard or comfort tray and a larger worktop — EasyCart XL adds a large HPL worktop, VexioCart XL comes with Ø 125 mm castors. Choose XL when paper, a second device or gloved hands need room next to the keyboard; stay with the standard width when the cart has to pass through crowded rooms. Then work through five questions. Does the job need materials on board, or only a screen and a keyboard? How wide is the narrowest door or aisle on the route? How heavy are monitor and client together? Does the cart have to be quiet, disinfectable or lockable? And does it run a full shift on battery, or is a socket always within reach? The answers usually point at one family and two or three models — a good basis for a trial unit.

Read more on our site

• Mobile IT carts
• EasyCart
• BaseCart
• Frequently asked questions