We recently completed a unique curved stainless steel art project for Camelback Commons in Arizona. Albina Co., Inc. bent 8 pieces of 3" SCH40 T304 Stainless Steel. All parts were bent to a full scale layout and all points needed to be hit +/-½”. The tightest radius was a 36” centerline. Camelback Commons are multi-level buildings with an open atrium for businesses as well as apartments, just walking distance from the high-dollar Arizona Biltmore. Photo Credit: Creative Machines., Inc.
As we near the end of our 80th Anniversary celebration, and during this holiday season of Thanksgiving, we wanted to give a special "Thank You" to our employees and provide them with a modern, state of the art, relaxing place for them to enjoy breaks and lunch together. We decided to create an elevated lunchroom up on our mezzanine level, giving the employees a retreat away from the production floor and opening up more production space below the mezzanine. This new production space opens up many opportunities for new equipment and capacities, just like the DAVI MAV K30 Plate Roll we just purchased! More information to come on that next month. Jackson-Barrett Construction did an amazing job on the project! They were professional and efficient and produced an extremely high quality room for us. With their help, we also commissioned a local company called PDX Wraps to create custom wall wraps for both the exterior and interior of the room. Such a cool product! In addition, we surveyed our crew to find out what was most important to them when creating this new space. Items included cell phone and laptop charging stations, multiple microwaves and refrigerators, and ergonomic chairs.
Albina recently had the pleasure of teaming up with Ed Carpenter and his team to help create the Barbara Walker Crossing Wildwood Trail Bridge at West Burnside in Portland, Oregon. The bridge is 178’ long measured at the center of its curving deck. Its basic structure is a tri-chord truss of rusting and painted steel, Carpenter’s design evokes imagery of the sword ferns and vine maples lining the entire length of the Wildwood Trail This is a project of the Portland Parks Foundation in partnership with Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R), Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), and Metro. Albina bent 3½" SCH80 A847 and 5" SCH40 A847 all rolled to various radii, as well as 1" SCH40 A53B, 1½" SCH40 A53B, 1½" SCH80 A53B all rolled to various radii. Bridge Design and Photos by Ed Carpenter.
Carving pumpkins is a family tradition in the Smith House, a tradition that started 20 years ago with one of mine and Jaime's first dates. But like most events in our household, it is not something we just do without thorough planning and preparation. We follow a strict set-up, we have our designs in mind before we start, we have all of the tools we need at hand, we tackle challenging designs, and most importantly, we have Chinese food waiting for us when we are done! But in all seriousness, the steps we go through to carve pumpkins are very similar to the ones we go through when dealing with a project involving a curved steel component.
1) Plan Ahead: Buy Your Pumpkin Shortly Before Halloween
2) Buy Your Pumpkin from a Pumpkin Patch or Supermarket
3) Select a Healthy Pumpkin Free of Nicks, Bruises and Cuts
4) Pick the Size You Need
5) Choose a Design Before You Start Carving
6) Choose a Method for Carving Your Pumpkin
7) Trace Your Design on the Pumpkin
8) Set Up a Spacious Work Area
9) Select the Right Tools
10) Remove the Filling
11) Carve Your Design
12) Display Your Pumpkin
Steps for Steel Bending
1) Plan Ahead: Early Involvement of Key Players, especially Your Bender/Roller.
2) Buy the Steel: Have Us Quote Your Job Labor + Material or Purchase Your Own Steel from a Service Center and Have it Delivered To Us
8) We have a 50,000 sq ft Shop with Ample Room to Handle Large Structural Projects and Smaller Repeat Orders.
9) We have the Right Tools with State of the Art Bending Equipment, Bend Dies, Fab Equipment and a QC Department.
10) No Need to Remove the Filling! We DO NOT fill your HSS with other Structural Members. We are able to Bend HSS Members WITHOUT adding extra Material and Weight.
11) Bend, Roll, Spiral, Fabricate, Form!!
12) Erect, Assemble & Display Award Winning Projects Featuring Curved Steel Members for the Steel Industry to See!
The college tours continue and a few weekends ago, we had the pleasure of visiting Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon and seeing the curved steel canopy at the Student Experience Center.
The project was bent out of TS 20" X 12" X .500" WALL. Bent the hard-way to the tightest radius of 101'-8" inside. Always fun to see our handy work in person!
Albina recently completed a great project for a curved steel roof at the M-Car Wash in Davie, Florida
Materials bent for this project included Tube Steel 10" X 4" X .250" WALL A500 GR B yielding 3 pieces. Albina cut the material to length, prepped and primered each piece. Tube Steel 10" X 4" X .375" WALL A500 GR B- yielding 12 pieces bent the hard way. Albina's scope of work was to bend, trim, holes, weld caps and grind per drawings. NOMMA #1 finish welds. Prep and prime paint after fabrication. Exposed. We also bent 3" SCH40 A500 GR B to yield 15 assemblies. Albina Cut, Fit, weld and grind per drawings. NOMMA #1 finish. Prep and Prime after fabrication.
We took our daughter to tour the University of Oregon this week and we were simply in awe of the amazing facilities and buildings on campus! Our tour started on Franklin Boulevard where the University broke ground in early March on the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. 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 is slated to open in early 2020.
"The Spheres" in Seattle, Washington have been all the buzz lately! "The Spheres" were featured in the May 2019 Edition of Modern Steel Magazine as the buildings were awarded the AISC's IDEAS2 Presidential Award for Excellence in Fabrication! Just this last week, our VP of Sales, Brad Lund, was able to attend the award presentation ceremony at "The Spheres" in Seattle and we were awarded a plaque to display in our office. See below for some AMAZING pictures!
Albina Co., Inc. was the steel bender/roller for the Curved Steel Bio-Sphere buildings in Seattle, WA. Albina bent 750,000# and 1,050 pieces rectangular tube steel bent the easy way and a portion bent off-axis. Almost 8 miles of welding work and grinding was avoided because of Albina’s ability to bend a portion of the project. Almost NO correction was needed during fabrication or erection as the bends fit to the fixtures within 1/32nd of an inch! Albina Co., Inc. also bent the handrails and spiral staircase for the interior of the buildings.
Interior Shot of the "webs" used to help create "The Spheres"Curved Steel Handrail 2nd floor of "The Spheres"A close up of the "webs" used to help create "The Spheres"Curved Steel Handrails and Spiral Staircases on the interior of "The Spheres"Curved Steel Spiral Staircase at "The Spheres" (looking down)Curved Steel Spiral Staircase at "The Spheres" (from ground level)
“A Monumental Journey” by Kelly James Marshall for the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation. The monument is featured in the August issue of Modern Steel “What’s Cool In Steel.” The monument celebrates the legacy of African American laywers who founded the the National Bar Association in 1925 and the monument symbolizes communication among diverse people and legal system, that while not perfect, strives to be balanced. Find more details about the project in the above article featured in Modern Steel. Albina bent various materials for this project including: 3 x 40 ft: 5" X 5" X 5/16" ANGLE A36. Cut and bent to net 8 pcs (leg out). Bent down to a 68” inside radius. 1 x 20 ft: MC3 X 7.1# A36. Cut and bent to net 2 pcs (flanges in). 2 x 48 ft: TS 6" X 6" X .625" WALL A500 GR B. Cut and bent to net 4 pcs. Bent down to a 58” inside radius. 1 x 48 ft: TS 6" X 6" X .375" WALL A500 GR B. Cut and bent to net 2 pcs. Bent down to a 77” inside radius.
Kerry James Marshall (American, born 1955) A MONUMENTAL JOURNEY 2018 Manganese Ironspot brick, steel, granite approx. H. 30 ft, D. 19 ft
Commissioned by Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation; Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation Collection, 2018.1 Photos: Ben Easter
Albina recently rolled 89 pieces of plate to various radii (with holes) to fit on concrete columns for the Stonestown Galleria mall in San Francisco. Our customer recently shared the below photos of the rolled plates and had this to say, “I just wanted to share that every single plate has fit phenomenally with no issues. I appreciate your companies attention to quality control and detail. We look forward to continuing to work with Albina on future projects.”
