QFM Engineering Guide
The design reference for Professional Engineers, architects, and facility designers specifying QFM modular blast freezing — refrigeration capacity, layout, racking, power, networking, and WMS integration, with the published numbers behind each decision.
How This Guide Is Organized
Six engineering decisions, in the order QuickFreeze verifies them before every mobilization.
Every QFM project passes the same pre-mobilization checklist before units ship: refrigeration capacity, layout, racking, power, network — then a QuickFreeze site visit that confirms all of it in the field. This guide walks the same path. Each section states the requirement, gives the minimum and recommended values from the published submittals, flags the failure modes we have actually seen in the field, and links the controlled documents (permanent quickfreeze.com/docs/ URLs that survive document revisions). Where a value is a hard limit, it is labeled as one; where it is a recommendation, the reason is stated.
The numbers here come from the current controlled revisions: QFM Racking Guidelines (MKT-200), the PE-stamped 480 V and 400 V electrical submittals (MKT-354 / MKT-356), the Internet Security Standards and Network Requirements (MKT-212), the Ethernet Option sheet (MKT-313), and the QFM Spec Sheet (MKT-199). When a published document and this page ever disagree, the document governs.
The Six-Step Design Path
Work the sections in order — each one constrains the next.
Refrigeration Capacity
Size the product freezing load — sensible, latent, QFM fan heat at 550 W per pallet position, and a 5% peak factor — and understand what the room designer must add on top.
Floor-Level or Multi-Level
Decide where the QFMs live: floor level with storage above, or up to 7 levels high. The choice drives racking hardware, electrical layout, and install logistics.
Racking
Opening heights, clear bays, beam specs, and back-to-back depths per the QFM Racking Guidelines — including the one opening-height mistake that quietly costs performance.
Power
One twist-lock receptacle per circuit, up to 24 QFMs daisy-chained at 480 V (20 at 400 V), and the breaker and grounding rules that prevent phase-loss failures in cold rooms.
WiFi & Networking
QFMs are outbound-only IoT devices: 2.4 GHz WPA2-PSK, DHCP, HTTPS 443 to two domains, about 1 KB per unit every 5 minutes. Plus the wired Ethernet alternative.
WMS & API Integration
Per-SKU dynamic cycle times instead of one timer set for the slowest product — the integration pattern, the parameter contract, the state dictionary, and the rollout process.
Step 7 is the site visit. No design package replaces field verification. Before mobilization, QuickFreeze visits the site and gives each checklist item — racking, power, network — a binary go / no-go. The residual gap on paper designs is almost always racking detail, and it is closed in person. Plan the visit into your schedule; standard equipment lead time is 18 weeks, and opening-height data is needed at least 3 weeks before install when AutoSeal is in scope.
Operator Best Practices
Design gets the airflow to the pallet — loading gets it through. Share this with the crews building and staging pallets.
Pallet Loading & Airflow
How to stack, spacer, secure, and seal pallets so a QFM freezes fast and even — with good-vs-bad examples from the floor.
Design Tools
Two self-serve tools cover the first and biggest question: do you have the refrigeration capacity?
Heat Load Calculator
Calculates the QFM product freezing load from your throughput, product, and pallet data — the same methodology QuickFreeze engineering runs from the questionnaire.
Blast Ready Report
Per-room review of your existing refrigeration: evaporator tonnage minus room base load equals QFM potential. The right tool for retrofits into occupied warehouses.
Toolbox
All fillable forms, calculators, CAD blocks, and controlled documents in one place — the working library behind this guide.
Core Documents
Permanent URLs — these links always serve the current controlled revision.
QFM Racking Guidelines
Minimum and recommended racking specs for new construction: capacities, opening heights, bay widths, beam and upright requirements.
Existing Racking Form
Fill-in measurement form for documenting racking already in your building — the starting point for every retrofit evaluation.
Electrical Submittal — 480 V
PE-stamped submittal for 480 V 3-phase 60 Hz installations: panelboard, breakers, receptacles, conductors, and units per circuit.
Electrical Submittal — 400 V
The international 400 V 3-phase 50 Hz submittal. The major difference from 480 V is the quantity of QFMs per electrical circuit.
Network Requirements
Internet security standards and network requirements: band, encryption, firewall rules, bandwidth profile, and commissioning.
Who to Contact
Engineering questions get engineering answers — direct, with the document attached.
For heat loads, layout reviews, submittal questions, or anything this guide leaves open, contact the QuickFreeze team at [email protected] or 260-234-2151. A typical engineering response bundles the proposal, heat load, CAD blocks, racking guidelines, and power requirements in one package, and every project kickoff collects four points of contact on your side: project lead, racking, electrical, and WiFi/IT. Identify those four people early — it is the single best schedule protection you can buy.
Start With the Load
Every other decision in this guide depends on the refrigeration number. Get it first.