QSL Printing: Heidelberg Press Foundation in Springfield, Oregon

Location: Springfield, Oregon
Client/Owner: QSL Printing
Partners: Gary Simantel, Architect; Heidelberg; Salem Concrete Paving (concrete placement)
Year: 2012
Size/scale: Six-unit Heidelberg CD74 press on a monolithic concrete mat (38 cubic yards); differential deflection 0.0016 inches against a 0.0036-inch limit
JBE services: Custom steel structure design, press foundation design, structural support for the tenant improvements, and observation of reinforcing and concrete placement
Sector: Industrial

QSL Printing structural engineering project, Eugene, Oregon

The challenge

In 2012 QSL Printing moved from Eugene into an existing industrial building in Springfield, the former FM Sheetmetal facility. Its new Heidelberg CD74 press needed a foundation that would barely move: Heidelberg’s installation criteria allowed no more than 0.0036 inches of differential deflection across the base. On top of that, the soils report from the building’s original construction showed clay lenses in the ground.

Project photos

What we did

JBE designed the custom steel structure that now houses QSL Printing. Working with the architect and directly with Heidelberg, we designed the press foundation as a monolithic cast-in-place concrete mat and modelled it with finite-element software. Heidelberg’s deflection limit, not the building code, governed the design. The mat came in at a maximum differential deflection of 0.0016 inches, under half the allowable. We specified over-excavation of any clay found under the pad, and we supported the architect’s tenant-improvement design for the rest of the move.

During construction we observed the reinforcing steel before the pour and then the placement of 38 cubic yards of 4,000 psi concrete.

The result

QSL Printing’s press sits on a foundation stiffer than the manufacturer asked for, in a building that was already standing. It’s the kind of precise, equipment-driven industrial structural engineering in Springfield, Oregon that we take on.