Blog posts tagged with 'Structural Steel Bending'

We have purchased new tooling to go on our new 6” Coast Wallace bending machine. This new tooling will allow us to bend 6” Sch10 and 6” Sch40 carbon and stainless steel to an 18” CLR and a 30” CLR. This new tooling allows us to offer high quality bends without wrinkles or unacceptable levels of ovality. We have plans in 2017 to purchase additional tooling sets to continue to meet your needs and increase capacities. [caption id="attachment_977" align="aligncenter" width="1632"] Tooling for 6" Coast Wallace Rotary Draw Bending Machine[/caption]

The NCSEA (National Council of Structural Engineers Association) 19th Annual Awards for Excellence in Structural Engineering were announced in September and featured in the December issue of Structure Magazine.  The facade system for the Petersen Automotive Museum Renovation was awarded Outstanding Project in the "special use structures" category.  The exterior of the building was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox as a series of freeform stainless steel ribbons flowing over the structure.  The ribbons are supported by treelike structures, bent by Albina Co., Inc., which were designed to resemble engine manifolds. This project faced many structural concerns and the design team was able to come up with a solution that met all the structural needs as well as meeting the architectural vision. For a full list of winners click on the STRUCTURE magazine article. Photos courtesy of Zahner. [caption id="attachment_729" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Peterson Auto Museum Exterior[/caption] [caption id="attachment_728" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Peterson Auto Museum Bent Pipe Supports[/caption] [caption id="attachment_727" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Peterson Auto Museum Bent Pipe Supports[/caption]

As 2016 comes to a close, we take a look back on some of the improvements we have made as a company to help better service the steel industry and our customer base. Equipment and tooling upgrades to increase capacities and product offerings. We added two new rotary draw benders, a 6" Coast Wallace with a carriage assist and overhead clamp.and a Pines #6 with a customized back boost, to our current inventory of equipment. We plan to fully tool these pieces of equipment allowing us to offer countless new radii options for our customers growing needs and demanding lead times. Shop floor redesign to maximize workflow efficiency and utilization of space. Before our new machines arrived, we completely restructured our shop allowing us to group similar machines in common areas. The result is improved material flow, increased production, and more efficient production. Welcomed Stu Hasman as an additional Regional Director of Sales. We are confident Stuart's commitment to quality, customer service and his integrity will make him a valuable resource as our company and your business continue to grow. Energy Efficient Lighting in Shop & Office. Solar Panel project coming in 2017. As Albina Co., Inc. continues to try to reduce our carbon footprint and be environmentally conscience, we completely retrofitted our entire production shop and office facility with energy efficient lighting this year. We are examining the potential to add solar panels on the South side of our building roof to reduce power consumption in early 2017.

The erection of the curved steel "Spheres" in Seattle, Washington was completed in April 2016. Over the summer, the team of contractors began the install of the glass enclosure over the steel bio-spheres. Check out the progression in the pictures below. As a reminder, Albina’s scope of work included approximately 750,000# and 1.050 pieces of rectangular tube steel bent the easy way and a portion bent off-axis. The material was bent to tight tolerances and bent to AESS standards. The amount of welds and grinding was significant, but thanks to Albina’s ability to bend portions of the project, a significant amount of welding and grinding was avoided. Almost NO correction was needed during fabrication or erection as the bends fit to fixtures (fabrication) within 1/32nd of an inch! Check back for more pictures as the project progresses! [caption id="attachment_948" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Curved Steel Bio-Spheres Seattle, WA.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_949" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Curved Steel Bio-Spheres Covered in Glass[/caption]

Most of our steel bending production crew members have been at Albina for a majority of their careers. Our crew has a great working relationship. Having employees who have been here for a number of years and look out for each other, makes a lot of safe combined experience which definitely feeds into the quality work we do on all our projects. Our production crew takes pride in their work as they are continuously repairing and improving equipment, keeping the shop clean and uncluttered to further improve job set up, tear down and production time. [caption id="attachment_943" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Production Crew at Albina Co., Inc.[/caption]

In July 2016, and article by Melissa Dalton was published in Oregons 1859 Magazine featuring treehouse architects Michael Garnier and Charles Greenwood. Albina has provided curved structural steel supports for the Garnier/Greenwood team on several of their projects. Click here to read the full article in 1859 Oregon's Magazine.

Summer months in the steel bending industry always present very fun and interesting curved steel projects from various manufacturing and structural customers alike. Our shipping yard is filled with various small material, mass production runs for our customers in the manufacturing industry. [caption id="attachment_922" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pipe Bending for Boat Lifts[/caption] [caption id="attachment_923" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Heating Coils for Asphalt Trucks[/caption] In addition, we have many large material, heavy tonnage, unique bending requirements for our structural and architectural customers who are extremely busy during the summer construction months. [caption id="attachment_924" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Structural Steel Bending of Wide Flange for Store Canopy[/caption] [caption id="attachment_925" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Structural Steel Bending of Rectangular Tube for Curved Roof Trusses[/caption]   No matter the size or difficulty of your project, Albina can meet and exceed your expectations. If you have a project that requires a curved steel element, call us today!

Today we loaded truck 2 of 4, consisting of 47,000# of bent structural steel, for The Mercedes-Benz project in Gilbert, AZ. This particular truck included various sizes of square tubing, 4" Angle and 36" Wide Flange. This truck will be delivering to Mesa, AZ for fabrication. This was a difficult load, as you can see in the picture below, because of the many different types of material on the load. However, with the expertise of our veteran loaders working with the driver, we were able to stack everything in a very safe manner, of which the driver was thrilled to haul such a secure load. [caption id="attachment_918" align="aligncenter" width="300"] 47,000# of bent structural steel on one complex truck load[/caption]

Some would think that a 24” tall beam weighing 84# per ft would be a big chunk of steel. One might even ask if it is possible to bend such a large section of steel. The answer would be to contact Albina. We are experts in bending the very small and the very large….you name it and we will bend it. Yes W24x84# beam is a large chunk of steel, but certainly not too large for the experts at Albina. A loyal customer out of Deer Park, Washington contacted us to bend this material the easy way down to a very tight 42 ft radius. After bending the 25,000# of steel, our customer is fabricating the sections and will eventually ship to Alaska for the new Juneau Seawalk. [caption id="attachment_898" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Wide Flange Bent the easy way down to a 42 ft radius.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_899" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Wide Flange W24 X 84# A992[/caption]

Albina shines on a steel bending project requiring material that isn’t a mill stocked or produced shape! A loyal customer out of Billings Montana contacted us to partner up on the South Reserve Street Pedestrian Crossing project. This project was unique as it required TS 18" X 18" X .625" WALL A588 CORTEN material that one couldn’t purchase from a mill. This tubing had to be fabricated from plate. Albina teamed up with a local forming partner in Tualatin, OR and had 60 ft lengths of plate formed in a press break and then welded to form this unique square tubing. After this material was formed and fabricated, Albina took over the steel bending portion of the job. We are curving 8 lengths x 60 ft long of this material to a 148’ 3” inside radius. All of the materials need to meet AESS (Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel) requirements. No challenge is too difficult for the experts at Albina! [caption id="attachment_893" align="aligncenter" width="225"] TS 18" X 18" X .625" WALL A588 CORTEN material [/caption]