What Is F-Min Grinding?
Warehouses and other businesses use high-density storage configurations to optimize their use of space. A consequence of this is that lift trucks and other vehicles need to operate without deviation; even a slight change in altitude occurring too suddenly could spell disaster in the tight corridors of a modern warehouse.
These warehouses are filled with defined traffic floors—concrete floors on which lift trucks (forklifts) and other equipment travel. Defined traffic floors are typically very narrow aisles (VNAs); a very narrow aisle leaves little room for deviation in movement. Cables or rails are used to guide traffic through these aisles.
F-min is a flatness measurement system that exists to ensure the flooring along a vehicle’s defined travel paths meets the extremely stringent requirements to keep that vehicle stable. To give you a glimpse into how precise F-min flooring must be, here’s a table of the values from the Concrete Floor Contractors Association:
| Maximum Rate of Change Per Foot of Travel | 0.040” | 0.050” | 0.060” | 0.070” | 0.080” |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approximate F-Min Tolerance | F-min100 | F-min80 | F-min65 | F-min55 | F-min50 |
As you can see, the tolerances are extremely tight—fractions of an inch per foot. These F-min floors are sometimes called superflat floors. F-min grinding is the concrete grinding process required to create superflat floors.
The F-Min Grinding Process
The F-min grinding process is involved. To begin, we determine the F-min value needed based on the equipment you’ll be using. From there, we use laser profiling equipment to measure your current floor along the wheel paths the equipment will be travelling on.
Using this information, we create a 3D profile of the floor; that profile will tell us the grinding depth we’ll need to use along the floor, and which areas we need to target with diamond grinders of different grits.
Once our plan is complete, we’ll move obstacles out of the area we’re going to grind, then use high-precision grinding machines to grind the floor down to the specified depth. We’re constantly monitoring our work in real time to ensure that we meet the required F-min.
Having completed the grinding process, we measure the floor again to ensure that we’ve achieved the desired F-min values. We then clean and seal the floors.
The Benefits Of F-Min Grinding For Flooring Projects
Whether you have a lift truck or another piece of equipment travelling down a defined traffic floor, floor flatness and levelness are essential. Even slight deviations in latitudinal or longitudinal elevation can lead to devastating damage in a warehouse.
By adhering to F-min tolerances on defined traffic floors, you can dramatically reduce the risk of damage in your warehouse.
It’s important to remember that F-min tolerances truly benefit defined traffic floors, where machinery moves in the same way every time. On random traffic floors, F-min is much harder to meet, as traffic can move in any direction; other flatness metrics tend to serve random traffic floors better.
Future Trends In F-Min Grinding Technology
Predicting future trends in F-min grinding technology is difficult, but as tolerances in industrial concrete floor surfaces become more stringent, we expect the need for F-min grinding to increase.
To this end, we might see grinders that automatically detect flatness and stop grinding when a desired profile has been achieved. This might be wishful thinking on our part, but it would improve precision and speed.
Conclusion
Modern warehouses have VNAs and defined traffic—a superflat floor can help ensure that your warehouse performs as efficiently as possible. At TCF Floors, we’re experts in warehouse concrete grinding. For F-min grinding in Winnipeg, we’re the company to choose; get in touch with us.
