Blog posts of '2018' 'May'

Albina recently spiral bent several stringers for a state of the art spiral staircase for the Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences in Lubbock, Texas. The Lubbock Entertainment and Performing Arts Association (LEPAA) has had the vision for this building since 2013 and broke ground just over a year ago in April 2017. The dance center will contain the entire operation of Ballet Lubbock, including six dance studios, parent and community space, production areas and administrative offices and expected to be complete in early 2020. Check out this website for artist renderings of the building and interior features such as the spiral staircase we bent consisting of: TS 16" X 8" X .625" WALL A500 GR C 16 pcs: Spiral bend the easy way Bent down to a 7 ft plan view radius. TS 10" X 6" X .625" WALL A500 GR C 10 pcs: Spiral bend the hard way Bend down to a 14’ 11” plan view radius.

Our new machine is up and rolling! This master bender machine offers the new and innovative iRoll camera system, allowing operators to view the part being bent compared to a radius template on the control screen. This is a new way to make quality and consistent parts. Another innovation with the master bender is the machine's ability to “learn and remember” how different materials bend, where the rolls need to be positioned, and how much spring back is associated with a bend / material. This machine is a great fit for our shop, its size puts it right between our current Roundo R7 and R11 machines. Allowing us to reallocate work from two machines to three machines which should certainly help with our scheduling flexibility. The MCP30 will allow us to bend up to 8” x 8” angle, 9” square HSS, W16 the easy way / W12 the hard way and 14” Sch20 pipe / 12” Sch40 pipe.

We currently have a job in progress that involves bending tube steel and doing some very complex end coping on the material for some custom skylights at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The coped ends are VERY complex. Every machine shop we contacted to cope these ends and slot these ends all declined. With all of our technical expertise, we figured out how to do the ends in-house. It is the most complex end details we have ever worked with. Albina is bending, trimming, slotting and miter cutting 150 pieces of TS 5" X 3" X .375" WALL A500 GR B and TS 4" X 3" X .375" WALL A500 GR B per drawings down to a 4'8" radius. Our customer will do the remainder of the fabrication. Stay tuned for more pictures as we near completion of the job!