Wheel Track Grinding

Summary

Wheel Track Grinding - Wheel track grinding is carried out in very narrow aisles (VNA) in the wheel paths of VNA forklift trucks to remove surface irregularities in the concrete, thereby enabling safe and efficient truck use.

Technical Information

VNA forklift trucks typically have either a three or four wheeled configuration; on three-wheeled trucks there are two wheels on either side at the front of the truck and one central wheel at the rear.

On four-wheeled trucks there are two wheels on either side at both the front and rear. Some trucks may have two small wheels at the front in place of one, so may actually be described as having six wheels, but their positions are the same.

Depending on the wheel configuration and which defined movement floor flatness specification is required, tracks are ground in the floor for the wheels to run in.

For a three-wheeled truck, three separate tracks can be ground to accommodate each of the wheels. However, some flatness specifications only require tracks to be ground for the two outer wheels.

For a four-wheeled truck, two tracks are ground to accommodate both sets of wheels.

If trucks with differing wheel configurations or axle/wheel widths are going to be used in the same aisles then careful checks need to be made to ensure all the wheels will fit within the same ground tracks.

Wheel track grinding is the most cost and time efficient method of grinding a narrow aisle. However, it does limit any future VNA truck changes the client might wish to make, as the wheels of the new trucks may be a different configuration. In this case, whole aisle width grinding may be a better option.