Blog posts tagged with 'Steel Bending Methods'

Take a journey in, above and around our production shop and office with this high resolution virtual and aerial tour of Albina Co, Inc. See our state of the art roll bending machines in action from a plan view, soar through our bays, watch our certified welders in action, and take a peek into our office and newly renovated lunch and conference rooms.

 

Rotary draw bending is a cold bending method where the member is clamped to a rotating bend die and drawn around the bend die. The tailing tangent is held against the bend die by a pressure die, and the bend die rotates until the desired geometry is formed. A mandrel is often placed inside the member to restrain cross-sectional distortion during the bending process. Bends can also be formed with special draw-bending equipment where deformations are controlled by tensioning along the member axis. Rotary draw bending is commonly used to form small radius bends in smaller-size round, square and rectangular HSS members. Specific tooling is required for each member size, shape and bend radius; therefore, this method is best suited for projects requiring many identical bends. This bending method is primarily used in the machine and parts industry (Weisenberger, 2016) and for piping (Riviezzi,1984). The maximum degree of bend is 180°, but the minimum bend radii of round HSS is approximately 50% smaller than that of other cold-bending methods (Riviezzi, 1984). Have a need for consistent, accurate, and repeatable bent steel parts, hit us up today! We are standing by ready to assist!

 

Thanks to Viva Railings LLC (Photo credit & Glass/Railing Fabricator) we have received some final installation pictures of the circular staircase at the "Trinity Complex", home to American Airlines Headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. We spiral bent Tube Steel 16″ X 16″ X .625″ WALL A500 GR B bent down to a an 18 foot radius, using our induction heating process to create the spiral stringers for the staircase. In addition to the 16″ square, we produced another set of spiral stringers consisting of Tube Steel 14″ x 6″ x .625″ wall REALLY tight, exposed and bent to a 5′-6″ radius on a 45° pitch. These are the type of bends that ONLY Albina can do! The 1.7 million-square-foot complex, dubbed the “Trinity complex,” consists of four seven-story buildings. It cost nearly $300 million to build and houses over 6,500 employees. There were 10 tower cranes on the project and more than 1,000 construction workers on-site during the peak of the project.

 

 

 

We recently bent 215 pieces of .79” OD X .083” WALL C-276 for a chemical processing application. C-276 alloy is one of the most corrosion resistant alloys currently available. This project is a perfect example of how consistent, accurate and reliable we are with jobs that require extreme precision!

 

 

Back in June, I posted a picture of some induction heating process, for the new American Airlines headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition to the 16" square, we produced another set of 

The 1.7 million-square-foot complex, dubbed the “Trinity complex,” consists of constructing four seven-story buildings. It will cost at least $300 million to build and will house over 6,500 employees. There are 10 tower cranes on the project and there will be more than 1,000 construction workers on-site during the peak. It is scheduled to open during the second half of 2019.  These are the type of bends that ONLY Albina can do!

We are hard at work planning lots of fun events and stocking up on lots of COOL Albina Company swag to prepare for the year-long celebration of our 80th Anniversary. We are in the planning stages of some great activities and events in order recognize all of our employees, customers and vendors that have helped us reach this milestone! We are also creating "The Museum" on site which will house one of the first ever pieces of equipment that Albina owned and used to bend materials. My Grandfather (John Smith) built our "Model-T" bending machine in the late 1930's / early 1940's utilizing the transmission and differential from a "Model-T" Ford. This machine was used to roll/bend various materials such as pipe, tube, square and rectangular HSS (hollow structural steel). The machine would pull material around a bend die resulting in a smooth radius finished good. The "Model-T" was in operation at Albina until the 1990's when it was replaced by more efficient bending equipment. We hope to have "The Museum" set up and ready for visitors after the first of the new year. Stop by to see us! We are happy to take you on a tour of our shop and show you the machine!

Albina recently used our induction heating process to spiral bend Tube Steel 16" X 16" X .625" WALL A500 GR B bent down to a an 18 foot radius for the new American Airlines headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. The 1.7 million-square-foot complex, dubbed the “Trinity complex,” consists of constructing four seven-story buildings. It will cost at least $300 million to build and will house over 6,500 employees. There are 10 tower cranes on the project and there will be more than 1,000 construction workers on-site during the peak. It is scheduled to open during the second half of 2019. Including the 16" square, we have produced another set of spirals and have one in the queue. The one in the queue is Tube Steel 14" x 6" x .625" wall REALLY tight, exposed and bent to a 5'-6" radius on a 45° pitch. We already made a mock up for the job and all parties loved it. These are the type of bends that ONLY Albina can do! This is a really amazing project! Stay tuned for more pictures.

Albina Co., Inc. bent 40,000 lbs. of various sizes of tube steel for the spiral staircases at the John J. Hemmingson Center at Gonzaga University Spokane, WA. Materials consisted of Tube Steel 16" X 8" X .500" WALL A500 GR B rolled the easy way down to a 22 ft radius. These lengths of material were spiral bent using our induction heating process to AESS standards. We also bent Tube Steel 12" X 6" X .250" WALL A500 GR B rolled the hard way down to a 19 ft radius. The John J. Hemmingson Center was completed in 2015 and serves as a meeting place for students, staff and visitors the University. We visited the campus shortly after it opened and my son will tell you that the highlight for him was the cafe where you can make your own milkshakes! He was sold from then on out and hopes to attend Gonzago University himself one day! [caption id="attachment_1442" align="aligncenter" width="3222"] University of Gonzaga Steel Spiral Staircase[/caption]

Albina Co., Inc. is not just a structural steel bending shop! Some of our biggest customers are manufacturing companies that require bent material and repeat jobs of small parts. We recently finished a project that required some complex tube bends on our CNC draw bending equipment out of the following materials: 136 pieces of 1" OD X .065" WALL T304 S/S bent to a 2½” center-line radius. 136 pieces of Tube Steel 1" X 1" X .083" WALL T304 S/S bent to a 3½” inside radius. 68 pieces of ½" OD X .049" WALL T304 S/S bent to a ½” center-line radius. All parts were cut, bent, washed and packaged by Albina Co., Inc. for shipment. Prior to shipping all parts needed to be free of dirt, debris and oil.

Modern Steel recently interviewed our very own General Manager, Mark King, to help construct the recently published article "Above all, ART" that highlights the precise structural design and inspiring architecture of the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis. As a bender/roller, we were involved early enough in the process that we were able to reduce complicated curves, simplify the steel bending and reduce significant costs. The canopy consisted of HSS 14" x 10" rectangular tubing bent in multiple planes (both the easy way and the hard way). An important highlight of the project was that some of the material that was bent in multiple planes was rotated off-axis by a slight amount, and the radius was large enough, that we were able to bend it cold, which is a faster process than hot bending. [caption id="attachment_1091" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] 50,000 Square Foot Permeable Roof[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1092" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Curved Steel Entry [/caption] [caption id="attachment_1093" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Overview of Curved Roof Structure[/caption]