Blog posts tagged with 'Steel Bending'

"Responsibility Equals Accountability Equals Ownership. A sense of ownership is the most powerful weapon a team or organization can have." -Pat Summit, Former Tennessee Women's Basketball Coach We live in "what used to be" the beautiful city of Portland, Oregon. We used to take our kids down to the waterfront and spend the day playing tourist in our own city, but those days are long over. Our daughter ran a race downtown recently and we were in shock at the state of our city...garbage everywhere, human excrement on the sidewalks and in the flower beds, it was embarrassing. Yet most people were content to walk over the trash, to turn a blind eye to the sad state of what used to be one of the most beautiful cities in the country. Our take was that our communities have lost their sense of responsibility, accountability and ownership. We don't have the solution to change these things, I wish we did, as I know many areas of the country face the same challenges. However, we can make a promise to you that we run our organization like we run our family. We treat our facilities like we treat our own home. We are respectful, responsible and safe in how we operate and we also understand that our ability to perform directly reflects on you and your company when dealing with your customers. We are accountable to our customers and vendors. We keep our word and we do what we say we can do, when promised, and to your satisfaction. We value our employees and our facility and we take great care of the people and property around us. We take great pride in our responsibility of servicing you and great pride in the ownership of Albina Co., Inc. [caption id="attachment_1508" align="aligncenter" width="660"] We recently went on a family trip to Kona, Hawaii. We work extremely hard and we play extremely hard! We zip-lined for the first time! All of us went upside down and no hands over spectacular river gorges, water falls and lava tubes! The next day, we swam with dolphins in the wild and also came upon a pelagic manta ray measuring 8 feet wide that had never been spotted in the Hawaiian waters! The kids had the amazing pleasure of naming the manta ray "Freedom"![/caption]

Click thru to the brochures section of our website or on the image below to be directed to our website and download your FREE White Paper titled "EXPER(imen)T: Why You Should Use a Bending Expert vs. Buying Your Own Equipment. If you are a manufacturer or even a structural fabricator looking to purchase your own bending equipment, this is an offer you don't want to miss!

Brian and I found ourselves in an elevator with Phil Knight, the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., and we stood there in silence, when all we wanted to do was give him a 2 minute "elevator speech" about everything that is wrong with youth sports these days and how we wanted to partner with him to create a fun and positive environment for all kids involved in youth sports. We choked! But the good news is, if we were standing in an elevator with world-renowned architect, Frank Gehry, we would have a 2 minute elevator speech about Albina Co., Inc. and steel bending to blow his socks off! Albina Co. is a small family-owned steel bending company founded in 1939. We are located in Tualatin Oregon (just south of Portland) and are able to service the entire United States and Canada from our single location! If you have the opportunity to do business with Albina Co., Inc., I KNOW you will not be disappointed. Albina Co., Inc. is unique from other bending companies for a number of reasons: •We have a full range of state of the art bending equipment allowing us to provide our customers with a one stop shopping experience for bending. We can bend any type of material (pipe, tube, plate and all structural members) and virtually any size of material (from the very small to the very large). •When processing a job, generating a quote, or providing bending consultation we are looking to be part of YOUR TEAM and not just a vendor. Our staff is made up of experts that are not satisfied with “good enough”; our staff strives to exceed your expectations. •For every job we process a knowledgeable project manager is assigned as your point of contact for the duration of your project. This project manager will always treat you with honesty and integrity and provide you with timely and accurate information. •Every order we process will be confirmed back to you and it will be reviewed by two members of management (production and QC) BEFORE we start production. This ensures that the most accurate information is delivered to the shop for processing. •We have developed our own custom in-house management software that helps us service you during every aspect of your project. In addition to our in-house management software we also offer bending calculators on our website to assist with complicated bending computations such as spiral bending math. •Our customers are our best sales staff- we frequently hear from our customers that bent materials provided by Albina are in better condition, less distortion and dimensionally more accurate when compared to previous experiences with competitors. We would love to partner with you on your next project. Do not let distance be a deterrent, consider us your “local” bending partner and see how working with Albina Co. is unmatched by other bending companies.

As 2017 winds down, we would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you. We hope to have the pleasure of doing business with you for many years to come. As we reflect on the many relationships we built upon this past year, the very interesting and high-profile projects we have been a part of, as well as the challenges and obstacles we faced along the way, we are thankful that we had such a great customer base to share those experiences with. We are looking forward to a new year that will certainly bring its own set of adventures, but we are ready! WE GET IT...YOU ARE BUSY! THAT IS WHY WE VALUE YOUR TIME. It seems anymore that there isn't just a "busy time of year", every day, throughout the entire year is busy! We get that you are being pulled in many different directions with work, family, fun activities, etc. That is why we want you to know that WE VALUE YOUR TIME and boy do we have a gift for you this holiday season! The visionary concept of "videotelephony" was first popularized in the late 1870's in both the United States and Europe. The first systems were developed by AT&T Corporation, first researched in the 1950's, and failed mostly due to the poor picture quality and the lack of efficient video compression techniques. Today's video conferencing systems are no longer just for webinars. Albina has invested in a system that makes video conferencing as simple as one click in an email. Even if you do not have a camera on your end, our video call allows you to see our smiling face, while we both can talk like a telephone call. But it can go much further than that! We can share our screen with you to review drawings We can link you to our shop cameras so that you can see your job in progress We can teach you how to use the calculations application inside our website We are still learning how this can bring even more value AND respect your time. Click on this YouTube Video to see a brief example of what we are now able to accomplish (and at the same time, receive my holiday well wishes via video!) Never tried a video call? Drop us a line and we would be happy to show you.

We recently received these pictures from our customer. They used our rolled steel materials to construct this "chute." Albina rolled 6" SCH40 A53B ERW down to a 12 ft radius (tightest) and also rolled 1/2" A36 plate to fit to the laser cut plate on the face of the chute. We are hoping to get some pictures of the "chute" in action and will pass them along as soon as we do.

We are making custom boat parts out of 1" OD X .065" WALL 6061-T6 ALUM material. Our customer needed 850 parts made for this one project. Each part was bent on a 2½” center-line radius to 90 degrees. Each part had one end flared to 37°. All parts needed to be supplied in a T6 condition upon completion and be anodized for a clean surface condition. Our bent steel can be seen on various applications in the auto, marine, aviation, locomotive, agricultural and food processing sectors. Our bends are used on locomotive frames, boat frames, deck rails and even components for homeland security helping to protect our docks and ports.

We live in a very uncertain world right now, but we try to remind ourselves every day that "There is Always Something for Which to Be Thankful." We can only control what goes on in our own little circles of life and it is more important now, more than ever before, to take the time to say "Thank You" to the people who have made an impact or impression on either our personal or professional lives. We are thankful.... For our Loyal Customers: We truly appreciate your business, and we're grateful for the trust you've placed in us. We are looking forward to another strong year and continuing our joint efforts to add the functionality, beauty, and drama of curved steel to the building and manufacturing worlds! For our Outstanding Vendors: We are thankful that we have such a strong vendor base to meet, and often times exceed, all of our daily business needs. We value the relationships we have spent years building and hope that 2018 brings continued new projects and growth. For our New Customers: "Thank You" for giving us a shot to be your steel bender of choice! We hope that your experience was a positive one and that we can continue to service your steel bending needs at the highest level. We are thankful for you giving us the opportunity to show you what we can do for you. For our Employees: Our employees are part of the Albina family and so many of us have been around for decades battling through the many ups and downs of our economy. We have a very strong team in place right now and we are ready to meet the challenges ahead whatever they may be. We are thankful and grateful for their dedication to the Albina family and the time and efforts they spend servicing our many wonderful customers. We hope to have the pleasure of doing business with you for many years to come. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you. [caption id="attachment_1373" align="aligncenter" width="4032"] We are Thankful for the Opportunity to participate in the Consano Organization- A non-profit crowdfunding platform for medical research. We got involved in the organization when my father, Bill ,was diagnosed with a desmoplastic melanoma, that lead to his eventual passing in 2011. Albina is grateful to the Consano Organization for all of their wonderful work![/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.

Our capacities keep on expanding with the arrival of two new machines! We just received new 2" and 3-1/2 capacity draw bending machines. Rotary draw, or compression bending occurs when material is bent by rotating it around a bend die (and typically pulled or pushed over mandrel rod). A bend die is formed to fit a specific material size/type and at a specific diameter to fit the bend requirements. The material to be bent is clamped to the bend die and then is drawn, or pulled, around the bend die until the desired degree of bend is met. This method produces clean, tight radii bends and is mainly used by manufacturers or industrial companies. [caption id="attachment_1358" align="aligncenter" width="1632"] 2" Rotary Draw Bender[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1356" align="aligncenter" width="1632"] 3-1/2" Rotary Draw Bender[/caption]

I recently ordered a comforter that was to include one comforter and two pillow shams. I only received the comforter and no shams. They couldn't just send me the shams, because they were supposed to come in a set...clearly. I had to return the original comforter at my own expense and reorder. I ordered a t-shirt for my daughters cross country team. I received the shirt and the entire bottom hem was ripped and shredded. I took it to the vendor and they offered to cut off the loose strings for me and thought I was crazy for even asking for a new shirt that was actually sewn correctly. I ordered a headboard and was told it would be one week till delivery and I also asked them to email me a receipt. It took 3 weeks, 5 phone calls and not one return call to get the answer that they have no idea when the headboard will ship and that their system doesn't allow them to send receipts. All of these experiences in just one day left me questioning how our world even functions anymore? Have we just accepted that we don't get what we pay for, that below average quality is acceptable, and that customer service and on-time delivery just doesn't really matter? Well, it matters to me. Does it matter to you? Well, guess what? We are investing in you. When we make improvements to our business, we ask ourselves if it will add VALUE to our partners - YOU. Here are some examples of recent advances we have made to give you a fantastic ALBINA EXPERIENCE: Everyone says your call is important, so why do you always get VM? We value your initial phone call so much that last month we invested in and installed a new state of the art VOIP phone system to field your calls. This phone system allows us to redirect phone calls to our cell phones when necessary so calls are rarely missed. You need your quote WHEN? Our typical quote return is 48 hours. If you have a specific date that you need the response by, please list it on the request. We always strive to meet or beat the date requested, in some cases we have even returned the quote the day of the request - just let us know. Your peace of mind via Confirmation Every order that we enter to our system has a corresponding order confirmation that is emailed to you for your review and records. What's my status? With our state of the art scheduling software we are able to provide you real time status updates as requests are made. Show me... We have installed a new camera system in our shop with 2 Megapixel cameras. These cameras offer Albina management high quality images of our production process right from our desks. We both value efficiency and quality and these cameras will allow management to better service your needs by providing real time data on what phase your job is at in our shop. When will I get it? When an order is shipped, our shipping manager sends you tracking information of the shipment (when this information is available) so you know exactly where the order is once it leaves our facility. We want you TO BE PART OF THE EXPERIENCE that we provide at Albina Co., Inc. We want to be your "go to" steel bender. I guarantee you will not be disappointed and it will be AN EXPERIENCE worth having. [caption id="attachment_1337" align="aligncenter" width="3472"] Double Day Inn Gettysburg, PA.[/caption] Thought it would be fun to let you all be a part of OUR EXPERIENCE by sharing this picture and story. On our summer vacation, we returned to the exact spot on the battlefields of Gettysburg where we got engaged. Almost 20 years later, the porch remains unchanged and we were able to recreate that special event with our two kids, and our fabulous tour guide! What a cool experience! It felt so good to know that some things never change, and that what worked 20 years ago, still works today! Here's to another 20 years!