Die Cut Machines: A Concrete Relationship with Goodmanson Construction

Project: Concrete Foundations for Die Cut Machines
Company: Impressions, Incorporated
Location: St. Paul, MN

What, you mean you can’t just put heavy machines right on warehouse floors or industrial floors?

Not if they’ve got continuous pounding or consistent high natural frequency vibrations. Over time, those are going to wear out commercial concrete floor of any strength. That’s why Goodmanson Construction offers machine foundations: specifically formulated concrete slabs or pads that are built to the highest industrial specifications, and are built to last the life of your heavy machinery and beyond.

Goodmanson Construction makes an impression at “Impressions Inc.”, a family owned and operated design, printing and packaging company based out of St. Paul, MN. 

The process engineer at Impressions, Inc. needed to replace two die cut machines and found that these machines needed new concrete foundations before installation. These machines were perfect for a specifically engineered machine foundation: they were incredibly heaving and produced a consistent pounding as they performed their job.

A die cut machine is one that cuts and perforates cardboard to be folded into boxes such as pizza or business cards boxes. Having known the Goodmanson family through youth hockey, Impressions called Goodmanson Construction. Terry Callahan was the estimator/design specialist that worked with Impressions and less than five weeks later the project was completed.

This project was going to take more than a warehouse concrete floor engineered for heavy traffic, forklifts or pallet jacks. You can’t afford to mess around here! You’ve got to protect both your investment in your shop floor AND your machine (you’ve probably sunk a pretty penny into both, I’d imagine). So let’s talk about our special process for industrial concrete machine foundations.

Our Process

Having been in business for over 43 years, our reputation, quality of workmanship and our versatility were a few of the reasons Impressions, Inc. hired Goodmanson Construction. Goodmanson scheduled this project to be completed during nights and weekends so as not to interrupt the flow of Impressions project schedule.

Taping off and poly wrapping the construction site was essential for keeping the rest of the building and other machinery, dirt and dust free while they were saw cutting and jack hammering out the old foundations.

Along with removing up to 30” of the old reinforced concrete, Goodmanson also dug out another 18” of underlying soil and replaced it with compacted, recycled concrete for a solid base.

Two levels of #5 steel rebar placed in a 12” grid pattern were installed in the 5,500 psi (final psi equaling 5,500-8,000) concrete mix for reinforcement.

With the weight of the machines and the continuous pounding necessary to cut the materials, the concrete was poured 24” thick.

The new foundation was then troweled smooth and sealed. Finally, before thoroughly cleaning the effected area, Sonolastic NP1 joint sealant was applied to the joints for added strength.