Blog posts of '2019' 'March'

Albina recently bent 100 lengths of TS 2" X 1" X .125" WALL 6061-T6 aluminum in elliptical configurations. All of the ellipse bends had to be within 1/8" of the template provided and it was critical that all parts match each other. This was a rush project that was required just a few days after receipt of material. The ellipse bends will be used in the newly renovated pool at the Universal Palms Hotel in Florida. The hotel was recently purchased by a group of New York investors that plan to re-brand the hotel under the Choice Hotels franchise.

Albina recently bent 96,000# of steel consisting of 75 pieces of  TS10" X 6" X .500" WALL A500 GR B and TS 10" X 6" X.625" WALL A500 GR B bent the hard way for the curved Steel roof structure at the Rainbow Recreation Center in Oakland, CA. The renovation and expansion of the Rainbow Rec Center is a 13.7 million dollar project expected to be completed by Spring 2019.

On Friday, March 2nd, almost a year-and-a-half after announcing the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact, the University of Oregon broke ground for the new campus! The project is slated to be complete by 2020. A signature sky bridge over Franklin Boulevard will connect the campus to other U of O research facilities while creating a gateway corridor between Eugene and Springfield. Albina Co. Inc. bent 22" OD X 1" WALL CARBON STEEL PIPE to a 105 foot centerline radius for the sky bridge. What an amazing project! Stay tuned for install pictures!

Another high purity project in the books! We have been staying real busy with a number of stainless steel projects recently. Not only are they bright and shiny to look at, but they often present a unique challenge depending on the configuration and specifications for each piece. For this project, Albina bent 1¾" OD X .065" WALL T304 Stainless Steel Tubing into multiple coils from 20 ft lengths to a 26.75” diameter.

As we continue to strive to be an industry leader with our "out of the box thinking" and with our push to work smarter with the use of technology, we sat down for an interview with the "Tube & Pipe Journal" to discuss what exactly we are doing to achieve our goals. Log into the digital edition of the "Tube & Pipe Journal" to read the fabulous article written by Eric Lundin!

After many years of consideration, we determined it was the right time to move our shop workers into personal digital devices and start "working smarter." The initial desire was to have workers get rid of the old, antiquated paper time card system and move to a better digital solution. What evolved was a very powerful personal digital device that shares a wealth of information internally and externally. Some highlights include:

1. Picture Vault. Operators have the ability to take pictures of a customer's project during various phases of production and easily upload those pictures for sharing with the customer via our website. 
2. Time cards. We no longer fill out paper time cards or punch a clock. Workers are able to apply time automatically to orders and machines with a simple click of the button. All of the time is automatically tied into our job costing and payroll system avoiding double entry and extra handling of paper time cards.
3. Daily and Weekly Schedules are now available for all workers on their personal device, instead of being on a central computer that all workers had to walk to.
4. MTR's are now available for workers to review for all jobs that require heat numbers to be verified and transferred.
5. Internet allows workers to access our Bending Calculators page and use our powerful bending calculators to help with daily math.
6. Email is available to certain workers that have Albina email accounts to allow for documented communication between workers.
7. Scientific calculators are available to all workers.
8. Access to Albina's vast library of tooling.
9. Access to saved production notes for repeat parts.
10. Access to setup pictures that can be zoomed to get a detailed view of what is required.
11. Ability to preview a work order without tracking down printed paperwork.
12. Access to a company wide vacation schedule so workers know when vacation time is coming up and when vacation time is available.
13. Ability to preview a purchase order and receive a purchase order.
14. Ability to update job status and mark when parts are complete in real time.
15. Performance Review. Each worker has the ability to review production productivity and production efficiency percentages weekly, monthly and annually.These personal digital devices have become very powerful tools for our workers and certainly help with efficiency. We continue to strive to be an industry leader with innovative, "out of the box thinking."