Experts disagree on Quad plant collapse

SBT Reporter

Media accounts of the collapse of Quad/Graphics Inc.’s high-tech warehouse in Lomira have alternately blamed welds in a rack system and the alleged fall of a boom as reasons for the disaster.
The collapse is still under investigation by the Safety and Buildings Division of the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, which has not yet determined a cause, according to department spokeswoman Sherry Liantonio.
Industry insiders involved in construction of rack-supported structures and automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) similar to the one that collapsed July 12 and then burned in Lomira disagree as to whether failure of the rack itself could be implicated.
The cause of the Lomira plant’s collapse, which killed one worker, continues to be investigated, and professionals who construct similar facilities are wondering why the unprecedented project failure happened.
The building was a rack-supported structure, which actually relies on structural support from the metal racks. In a rack-supported building, the girts, which support the wall system, are attached to the rack. The roof is supported by the rack, as well as components known as purlins.
Oddly enough, the president of a Wisconsin firm that manufactures and erects rack systems was adamant that the failure of the steel rack system could cause the building to fall. Likewise, a representative of a company that designs and erects ASRS systems said that if the mast of the robotic system that loads and unloads pallets tore loose from its track in the 100-foot high structure, it could take out a wall and cause a structural problem.
Neither professional had ever heard of a similar incident occurring once a rack-supported building had been constructed.
Jay Anderson, president of Stevens Point-based Steel King Industries, said faulty welds in the rack system could have caused the collapse of the Lomira plant. The plant’s rack system was manufactured and erected by Rack Structures of Livonia, Mich. If welds securing one level of a rack were to fail, that could cause a domino effect that could bring a building down, Anderson said.
"If you have one level collapse, it would take down the levels below," Anderson said. "Once you double the load on the next level, particularly if that level might have been damaged prior to that, you could cause that level to fail."
Anderson said his company had been involved in rack-supported buildings, but none that, to his knowledge, incorporated an ASRS system.
Jeff DeLong, a structural engineer with the York, Pa.-based ASRS engineering firm Westfalia Technologies, said the collapse was a calamity for the ASRS industry. DeLong said he believes the loading arm of Quad/Graphics’ ASRS system was a more likely culprit in the collapse than the rack system itself.
DeLong stressed that most rack system failures are due to repeated impacts from forklifts – a problem that would not be a factor at the Lomira plant, which used an ASRS system.
"My guess is it would be due to an ASRS component failing," DeLong said. "There is typically a tremendous amount of redundancy in a racking structure, because there is a column every 5 to 8 feet depending on the design. You have a tremendous amount of columns in the system. If one member would be overloaded, the forces would be transferred to another area. So as to what may have caused this, to have one member fail and create a collapse – it wouldn’t happen. I can’t imagine it happening. There must have been something else."
Collecting data on the construction of the project could prove to be difficult, as Quad/Graphics uses its own department, Quad/Construction, to manage all of its facility construction.
Local companies involved in construction of the Lomira facility include: