Floor Flatness and Levelness Testing

Floor Flatness Surveying and Testing

Flatness and Levelness

Surface profiles of concrete floors must be controlled so that departures from a theoretically perfectly flat plane are limited to an extent appropriate to the planned use of the floor. For example, high-lift materials handling equipment (MHE) requires tighter control on surface regularity than for a low-level factory or warehouse. Inadequate surface regularity increases the risk of collision between the trucks and racking, causes driver fatigue and forces materials handling equipment to be operated at lower speeds.

The floor should have an appropriate flatness in order to provide a suitable surface for the operation of materials handling equipment, and an appropriate levelness to ensure that the building as a whole, with all its static equipment and MHE, can function satisfactorily.

Figure 1: Levelness and Flatness

The difference between flatness and levelness is illustrated in Figure 1.

Floor Surveys

In warehouses, MHE operates in two different areas of traffic movement, these are Defined Movement and Free Movement. Planus Slab Services offer floor surveys and floor testing services for both areas.

We also offer surveying of Automated Warehouse Flooring

Free movement floors

Free movement floors refer to areas where materials handling equipment operates in random, non-defined directions and have an infinite number of travel paths.

Defined movement floors

Floors for very narrow aisle (VNA) racking installations are serviced by specialized MHE that run in a defined fixed path within the aisles.

Defined movement surveys are conducted in warehouses where high-bay, high racking installations are present. The floors are measured with Profileographs of various configurations.

By using the Profileograph, its possible measure continuous profiles of the forklift truck’s defined wheel paths and highlight any areas that do not comply with the flatness specification. Corrective grinding can then be supervised to ensure the smooth operation of the forklift truck.

Planus Slab Services offers fast, accurate and independent results for the Free movement and Defined movement surveys, to specified floor flatness standards : TR-34; EN15620; ACI Fmin ; VDMA; DIN 15185; ASTM E-1155; ACI-117 and DIN 18202.

Axiom Pro , F-meter