Blog posts tagged with 'bent steel applications'

Photo Credit: Univeristy of Oregon Track and Field.

Two major construction projects are just wrapping up at the University of Oregon and curved steel is at the forefront of both projects!

The Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact Sky Bridge.

Albina Co., Inc. bent 22″ OD x 1″ Wall Carbon Steel Pipe to a 105 foot center-line radius for a signature sky bridge that spans Franklin Boulevard and serves as a connector between campus and other U of O research facilities. The $225 million, 160,000-square-foot first phase opened in the Spring of 2020. Click on the link in my BIO to take a virtual tour of the building. Photo Credit: Campus Planning & Facilities Management U of O.

“The Front Runner in Steel Bending. We Tower Above the Rest” We were thrilled to be an integral part of reconstructing Hayward Field at the University of Oregon. Hayward Field is the world-class home to @OregonTF.

Albina created the curved steel diaphragm used to support the roof structure and provided various bent materials to help construct the landmark tower at the northeast corner of the facility. Designers wanted to create a structure that was open and airy, allowing spectators to enjoy great views and natural daylight, in an intimate environment.

For the roof, we rolled 600 lengths, varying from 28’-0” to 75’-6” long, of 14" OD X .375" / .500 WALL A500-18 GRADE B&C. That is 1,500,000# lot weight (750 tons) of rolled steel, 32 inbound trucks and 90 outbound trucks. The 14” OD material was laid over the top of the plate that we bent for this project. We bent 300 lengths, varying from 3’-0” to 37’-0” long, of PLATE 1½" THICK X 16¾" WIDE A572 GR. 50 and PLATE 1½" THICK X 10" WIDE A572 GR. 50.

In addition to the iconic roof, the tower at Hayward (187 feet tall) creates a community landmark honoring the first 100 years of track and field at Oregon. We rolled 400 lengths, varying from 20’-0” to 60’-0” long, of Tube Steel 8" X 4" X .500" WALL A500 GR B, 8-5/8" OD X .625" WALL A500C WHEELED, 8-5/8" OD X .375" WALL A500C WHEELED, 8-5/8" OD X .250" WALL A500C WHEELED, and Flat Bar 3/8" X 4½" A36. That is 330,000# lot weight (165 tons) of rolled steel, 10 inbound trucks and 16 outbound trucks! Photo Credit: Oregon Track & Field.

Our work was extremely precise, and we had zero rejected parts by the fabricator, Fought & Co., Inc. When measuring the work points during fabrication, they never once had to heat up or adjust the bending. To make the erection process go smoothly, we marked every 3-4 feet on the centerline back of the pipe to assist in the layout process for the diagrid “fish-mouth” stubs, and up-stands for the roofing system.

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!

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, agricultural equipment, automobiles, aircraft, deck rails and we even bend components for homeland security helping to protect our docks and ports.

Oh, The Places You’ll Go- “Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!” -Dr. Suess. I know we are all anxiously awaiting the day that we can back out on the roads, in the skies, on the rails, or whatever your preferred form of travel may be. Keep the faith and check out a few of the transportation projects we have been a part of over the years.

We recently completed a project consisting of 400 pieces of bent tube steel 4" X 4" X .375" WALL A500 GR B for a customer on the east coast. All parts were cut and trimmed by Albina to a 1/16” tolerance. These bent parts will be used on equipment for the timber industry.

We recently completed a job bending some rock guard frames out of 1" SCH80 6063-T52 Aluminum. Albina cut and bent the aluminum to net 500 pieces.  All of the pieces were bent on a 5" center line radius. It was quite an amazing site to see them all packaged and ready for shipment in our yard!

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!

We bend all sizes of angle that the mill produces, up to 8” x 8” x 1¼”. We can bend all types of angle as well; including aluminum, stainless and carbon steel. Carbon angle (mill produced) is classified as ASTM A36 resulting in a yield point (PSI) of 36,000 minimum. We bend all stock lengths as well as non-stock lengths. Stock lengths range from 20 to 40 feet. Angle is produced with equal legs and unequal legs. Unequal legs would measure differently on the horizontal leg versus the vertical leg. We have the ability to bend angle with the leg in, leg out, heel in, heel out and heel up. We also have the ability to bend bulb flat. Bulb flat is similar to angle with one of the legs cut down to a very short "stub". We can bend bulb flat with the stem out and the stem in. We can bend all mill sizes produced up to 430 mm x 20 mm (16.93” wide x .787” thick). Bent angle can be used for many different applications. The most common application would be angle flanges which are full circles that are used to join sections of pipe together. Bent angle is also used for canopies, roof trusses and tunnel shoring applications.