Blog posts of '2023' 'September'

They are too cool to be square! 

Albina recently rolled some pretty cool circles! We rolled the following materials:

Plate 2” THICK X 45¾” WIDE T304 S/S. Rolled to a full circle at a 41.5” outside diameter.
Plate 2½” THICK X 50½” WIDE T304 S/S. Rolled to a full circle at a 58.5” outside diameter.

For future reference, our plate rolls have the following capacities:

*Plate: 2-1/2" plate up to 10'0" in width
*Flat Bar the Easy Way: Any thickness and size thru 4" x 22"
*section is dependent on thickness to width

Common questions we receive from customers have to do with the stresses put on materials during the rolling, curving, forming, and bending processes. 

1. What stresses are put on the materials during the curving process?
2. What is the stress, strain on the steel being bent or curved?
3. Is the material weakened from the stress, strain during the curving process?
4. Is there a stress, strain diagram for curved or bent steel?
5. Is there a stress vs strain graph for curved or bent steel?

The easiest way to answer these questions is to reference the AISC Curved Member Design Guide #33.

https://www.albinaco.com/pdfs/design-guide-33.pdf

See Section 5.2 “Material Properties”

Cold bending involves inelastic straining of the member, which affects the material properties. These changes are primarily attributed to strain hardening and strain aging, which increases the yield stress, ultimate stress and hardness, and decreases the ductility and toughness. For curved members in buildings, the strains induced during the cold-bending process rarely exceed the potential strains induced in the manufacturing process of straight members.

Albina recently bent 70 pieces of 2” XXH A53B ERW and 20 pieces of 2 3/8” 1018 Solid Round to various configurations for a new art installation at Cedar Sanai Hospital in LA.  We can bend all types of pipe and tubing including aluminum, stainless and carbon steel. We even bend specialty materials such as copper, zirconium and titanium. View our Capacities Chart to see the wide range of materials and sizes we work with.