Blog posts of '2017' 'April'

We are continuing our efforts to reduce our collective dependence on fossil fuel and we are installing a solar power system on our shop roof to derive clean, pure energy from the sun! We are doing our part to go green and reduce our carbon footprint. Just today, over 100 panels were installed! 168 panels were installed in just two days and that includes panel installation and wire management! Here is what we are doing: • We are installing a 135kW (kilowatt) system. • The panels will be covering the roof of our 4th bay (this bay is 12,500 square feet)….that is a lot of solar panels. • Our building is perfect for solar as we have no shading and the panels will be southern facing for optimal efficiency for all seasons. • One array of solar cells will be 45 ft x 106 ft and the second array of solar cells will be 45 ft x 113 ft. • We will generate our own power for use. If we have excess power it will go back to the grid. What are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint? Do you consider the what your vendors or suppliers are doing to combat greenhouse gas emissions and global warming? People who are continuously looking for ways to improve their output without having an adverse effect on the environment is the type of vendor you want working for you. Vendors who look for new and innovative ways to improve their business will be the same ones that will give you a quality product and care about the outcome of your project.

Albina is working on bending rectangular hallow structural steel for the Olympic Towne Center project in West Gig Harbor, Washington. The Olympic Towne Center development will boast 186,291 square feet of retail space and will anchored by a 65,000 square foot grocery store. This project requires Albina to bend some TS 12" X 3" X .375" WALL A500 GR B rectangular tubing. Part of the project consists of spiral bent stair stringers, induction bent, down to an 6 foot plan view radius! This is a very tight radius for spiral bending HSS members. We are induction bending this material with our in-house designed induction bending method which will result in the highest quality spiral bends seen in the industry. We are also providing bends for the stair case landings. These bends are also down to a 6 foot radius and will all be provided to AESS quality standards.

Not all bridges are designed out of bent steel, however, most bridges DO require bent components. One such component, required on both retrofit or new bridge construction, is what is known as a bridge drain elbow. Albina is bending 6” Sch10 material on a new bending machine with new bend tooling for a Caltrans project. The bridge drain pipes we are supplying are 52 pieces in total that we are bending to a 18” center-line-radius (a 3d bend) at 90°. We are working closely with our customer to meet the tight Caltrans delivery requirements for this project. Stay tuned for some images of this project!

Albina can SUPPORT all of your steel bending needs. We were recently awarded a project to provide tunnel supports for a customer out of Arizona. We are processing 40,000# of bent steel tunnel supports for this particular opportunity. The project is being bent out of 60 ft lengths of wide flange W8 X 67# A992. We are providing AESS quality bends for all 45 pieces we are supplying. Each bend is to an 11’ radius the hard way. If you need a steel bending company to SUPPORT your needs, look no further than Albina!

Albina was recently awarded the bending for the Segerstrom Center for the Arts located in Costa Mesa, CA. This project consists of 48,000# of bending out of TS 20" X 12" X .625" WALL A500 GR B (4 lengths x 48 ft and 3 lengths x 60 ft). All of this material is being bent with our in-house designed induction bending method. 30% of the parts will be spiral bent while the other 70% of the parts are being bent the easy-way to various configurations and radii. We are working to a critical ship date and will certainly deliver as promised.

A loyal customer recently came to us with a scheduling problem. They needed 60,000# of structural steel and pipe bent in a very short period of time. Yes, our shop is very busy right now, but we needed to figure out a way to get this material bent and ready to ship. We modified our schedule, worked extra shifts and long days to meet the requirements for this job. We also procured the material for the project so our customer didn’t have to worry about finding the material. All 28 lengths were bent to various configurations each length varied from 20 ft long to 60 ft long. The largest structural member processed for this job was W18 X 106# A992 bent the hard way to a 150 ft radius. All materials were bent to AESS standards for the Mountain Park Church located in Arizona.

It is our pledge to our customers that you are never surprised at the end of a project. We will confirm our anticipated delivery schedule at time of order acceptance. If something occurs to change that anticipated delivery schedule, your project manager will contact you to make sure you are aware of any scheduling changes. Many of our return customers come back to us due to our unparalleled customer service and communication. One customer recently told Albina management that they have used other benders in the past and will only use Albina moving forward. Never had they been so well informed throughout the production process. Albina provided answers to questions before the questions were even asked. Another example of customer service is our automated shipping notifications. The morning after an order ships, Albina sends an email informing the customer of the method of shipment and tracking number if available. This will allow our customers the ability to track their shipment as soon as it hits the road. Also included with this email are any MTR’s, if required, so the customer doesn’t have to wait for these critical reports to arrive with the shipment. Our customers have the reports (electronically) even before receiving their shipment. We know that customers rely on the information we provide and make plans based on the information we provide. We strive to meet or exceed every customers wants and needs.

Albina continues to be one of the steel industry leaders in safety. Our shop workers always approach their jobs with safety in mind. We have a team of workers and management that make up our safety committee. These team members meet monthly and conduct onsite walk throughs in our steel bending shop to identify potential safety hazards. These hazards are always promptly remedied to avoid any potential issues. While most companies want to avoid safety inspections from OSHA, Albina welcomes these inspections. In fact we volunteer for OSHA safety inspections every year! Along with OSHA inspections we team up with a local vendor to act as our outside safety consultant. This vendor assists with our safety committee, educating us on current safety regulations and conducts safety walk-through’s with our safety committee team. Albina is proud of being an industry leader in safety and continues to make improvements keeping our steel bending shop as safe as possible.