Blog posts tagged with 'Early Involvement in Structural Design'

I would like to share a recent email that I received from a customer in response to my recent blog post titled "If You Are Persistent, You May Get It. If You Are Consistent, You Will Keep It." "Good morning. First I’d like to thank you for your recent support. I know a company’s attitude comes from the top. You have a great group of “how can we make it work” people. It’s unfortunate that there is so much road between our office and yours. I’d be glad to share a glass of wine with you. The point of your news letter is well taken. The only things I’d add is that your steel bending estimators are always available to help and frankly guide fabricators as to the best wall thickness, etc, to meet the challenges and provide the best curved steel finished product. This gives us the opportunity to include the cost of forming and shipping in the bid at the start. The other thing is pretty simple. It’s not a question of can I afford Albina Co., it’s can I afford not to?"

The quick and easy way to find out what we require when quoting a project specifying bent steel parts is to visit our online Steel Bending and Fabrication Request for Quote form on our website. Below is a summary of the information that we need to accurately and efficiently quote your job: a) Company Name, Address and Phone Number b) Primary Contact Name and Email Address c) Description of your project d) What is you Bid Deadline? e) Material Type & Size f) Material Quantity g) Provide any supplemental drawing or attachments that will help us bid the job. Give us the chance to quote your next job that specifies bent steel parts! We are a dependable supplier! Not only can you count on parts arriving on time, but the level of customer service and quality of parts that we provide will exceed your expectations. We value the relationships that we have with our customers.

Albina rolled / bent a 60' Length of HSS 16 X 4 X .500 A500 Gr. B tubular steel this morning. It was not the most challenging job on the whole, but we had no margin of error. A mill ordered 60' length of material that was not easily replaceable and would have caused significant schedule delays for our customer if it didn't work out. Rolled / Bent to a 12' Radius the Easy Way with virtually zero distortion. Planning and teamwork at all levels resulted in another example of the best available result.

Important message for steel fabricators, architects, engineers and project managers involved with projects requiring curved steel applications..."Using a third-party bending firm, and getting them involved early on in the design phase, allows you to take on bigger projects and offer more options to your customers." 

If you bring a third party bender into partnership with you, do it as early into the project as possible.  When designs are challenging, it is best to have your bending firm examine the bending design ahead of time so that they can identify potential issues and determine whether or not the desired outcome can be achieved.  All parties involved must agree on all of the critical elements of the project before a single piece of steel is bent.  Early involvement eliminates potential mistakes or misunderstandings later in the process, which could potentially result in scheduling delays or added cost for re-work.

Albina Pipe Bending Co., Inc. wrote a case study on Early Involvement and their experiences with working with Columbia Wire & Iron on the bending and fabrication of a spiral staircase and landing at the Allison Inn in Newberg Oregon.  See pages 26-28 in the January/February 2012 Issue of Fabricator http://issuu.com/fabricator/docs/jan_2012_fabricator for more information and details.