Blog

Albina recently rolled 36 pieces of Tube Steel 6” X 6” X .375” WALL A500 GR C to AESS standards at radii ranging from 3’-9” – 24’-4” for the United States Air Force Academy Visitors Center. The visitors center is expected to open early 2024 and the 32,000 square-foot facility will include storytelling and high-tech exhibits reflecting the Air Force and Space Force missions as well as illustrating a day in the life of a cadet at the Academy.  The Visitors Center is viewed as more than a public entrance to the Academy, it is also a gateway to Colorado Springs. Six years in the making, the new area will also feature a hotel, retail space and office space. 

Below are a few videos with more details on the project. 

You Tube Video

Colorado Springs Local News Channel KKTV

They are too cool to be square! 

Albina recently rolled some pretty cool circles! We rolled the following materials:

Plate 2” THICK X 45¾” WIDE T304 S/S. Rolled to a full circle at a 41.5” outside diameter.
Plate 2½” THICK X 50½” WIDE T304 S/S. Rolled to a full circle at a 58.5” outside diameter.

For future reference, our plate rolls have the following capacities:

*Plate: 2-1/2" plate up to 10'0" in width
*Flat Bar the Easy Way: Any thickness and size thru 4" x 22"
*section is dependent on thickness to width

Common questions we receive from customers have to do with the stresses put on materials during the rolling, curving, forming, and bending processes. 

1. What stresses are put on the materials during the curving process?
2. What is the stress, strain on the steel being bent or curved?
3. Is the material weakened from the stress, strain during the curving process?
4. Is there a stress, strain diagram for curved or bent steel?
5. Is there a stress vs strain graph for curved or bent steel?

The easiest way to answer these questions is to reference the AISC Curved Member Design Guide #33.

https://www.albinaco.com/pdfs/design-guide-33.pdf

See Section 5.2 “Material Properties”

Cold bending involves inelastic straining of the member, which affects the material properties. These changes are primarily attributed to strain hardening and strain aging, which increases the yield stress, ultimate stress and hardness, and decreases the ductility and toughness. For curved members in buildings, the strains induced during the cold-bending process rarely exceed the potential strains induced in the manufacturing process of straight members.

Albina recently bent 70 pieces of 2” XXH A53B ERW and 20 pieces of 2 3/8” 1018 Solid Round to various configurations for a new art installation at Cedar Sanai Hospital in LA.  We can bend all types of pipe and tubing including aluminum, stainless and carbon steel. We even bend specialty materials such as copper, zirconium and titanium. View our Capacities Chart to see the wide range of materials and sizes we work with. 

We have added some digital jigsaw puzzles of recently completed projects to our website for your enjoyment! Puzzles will be added monthly of projects featuring curved and bent steel. Enjoy "putting together the pieces" (like our fabricators often do with our bent steel parts)!

Link to Jigsaw Puzzles

For all our customers that need assistance in calculating bending dimensions or material take-offs for bending.  Look no further than Albina’s bending calculators / Curve Calculators.  Albina’s bending calculators allow end users to calculate the following critical bending data:

1. How to calculate the arc of a bend or curve with our Arc Calculator.
2. How to calculate the degree of a bend or curve with our Degree Calculator.
3. How to calculate the Mid-Ordinate (MO) / Rise of a curve or Arc with our Mid-Ordinate Calculator.
4. How to calculate the radius of a curve with our Radius Calculator.
5. How to calculate the ovality of a round section after bending with our Ovality Calculator.
6. How to calculate the critical dimensions of a stair stringer with our Stair Stringer Calculator / Spiral Math Calculator.
7. How to calculate the degree turn in plan view for a spiral staircase (spiral stringer).
8. How to calculate the degree of pitch for a spiral staircase (spiral stringer).
9. How to calculate the arc length for a spiral staircase (spiral stringer).
10. How to quickly determine the amount of straight or tangent material needed to successfully bend a length of material or part.

Albina’s calculators can be found here:  https://www.albinaco.com/calculators

Albina also specializes in plate bending, not just HSS, Pipe, Tube, and Structural Steel bending.  Countless customers come to Albina for our plate rolling expertise, including bending plate into a cone configuration.  Many customers require a cone calculator.  There are many cone calculators available, but we typically use a calculator located here:  https://i-logic.com/conecalc/.  Not only will this calculator provide the end user with the critical cone dimensions, but also the cone flat pattern.

Happy Summer! With warmer temperatures upon us, now is the perfect time to take your family to your local aqua park or playground for some good old family fun! Albina provides steel bends for many water parks, aqua parks and playgrounds. Some material we work with includes:

Snake:  SO#183616, 183617, 182767, etc.

4" SCH40 T304 S/S- bent by Albina per customer specifications.

Flower:  SO#183613, 182769, etc.

4" SCH40 T304 S/S- bent by Albina per customer specifications.

Leaf:  SO#183614, 180906, etc.

5" SCH40 T304 S/S- bent by Albina per customer specifications.

We have had the pleasure of providing many bent steel pieces for some fabulous projects at the San Diego Zoo including the Hummingbird Habitat, Komodo Kingdom, the Invert Building, the ZPA Catering Building, the Food Services Building, the Raintree Restroom and many more exhibits throughout both the Children’s zoo and the main part of the zoo. 

Basher Bridge

24 lengths x 48 ft long of 16" OD x .625" wall

Some rolled to a 20 ft radius.

Some rolled to a 50 ft radius.

Some rolled to a 350 ft radius.

Hummingbird Building

7 Lengths TS 8” x 4” x .375” Wall A500 GR B rolled Hard Way on various Radii from 24’-8” down to 6’-2”

9 Lengths TS 18 x 6” x .500” Wall A500 GR B rolled Easy Way on various Radii from 30’-11” down to 6’-0”

Komodo Exhibit

8 Lengths WT5 X 22.5# A992 Split from W10 x 45# Beam and rolled stem up to various Radii from 46’-2” down to 6’-2”

1 Length TS 3” x 3” x .313” Wall A500 GR B rolled to 13’-4” Radii

2 Lengths 6” OD X .500” Wall A500B rolled to various Radii

3 Lengths 6” OD X .375” Wall A500B rolled to various Radii

1 Length TS 12” x 8” x .500” Wall A500B Induction formed easy way to 4’-4” Radii

3 Lengths TS 3” x 3” x .313” Wall A500B rolled on various Radii from 13’-4” down to 5’-0”

7 Lengths TS 3” x 3” x .375” Wall A500B rolled on various Radii from 7’-10” down to 2’-3”

7 Lengths TS 8” x 4” x .375” Wall A500b rolled hard way on various Radii from 51’-6” down to 6’-8”

6 Lengths TS 18” x 6” x .500” Wall A500B rolled easy way on various Radii from 51’-4” down to 6’-6”

10 Lengths TS 6” x 6” x .500” Wall A500B rolled on various Radii from 56’-0” down to 7’-11”

10 Lengths C9 x 13.4# A36 rolled Flanges out and Flanges in on various Radii from 56’-0” down to 7’-11”

6 Lengths TS 12” x 6” x .500” Wall A500 GR B rolled hard way to various Radii from 46’-4” down to 6’-4”

10 Lengths PL ½" THICK X 12" WIDE A36 rolled hard way to various Radii from 46’-9” down to 5’-9”

Invert Building

7 Lengths TS 10” x 8” x .500” Wall A500 GR B rolled Hard Way on 10’-0” Radius

1 Length C12 x 20.7# A36 rolled flanges out to 17’-1” and 11’-10” Radii

2 Lengths 4” x 4” x 3/8” Angle T304 S/S Rolled Leg in and Leg out to 7’-1” and 7’-3” Radii

1 Length 4” x 3” x 3/8” Angle T304 S/S Rolled Leg out to 3’-11” and 9’-4” Radii

Temperature Exhibit

28 Lengths 5/8” Solid Round A36 Rolled to various Radii from 70’-3” down to 3’-11”

9 Lengths TS 8” x 6” x .375” Wall A500B rolled Easy Way to various Radii from 70’-3” down to 3’-11”

9 Lengths C9 x 13.4# A36 Rolled Flanges in and Flanges out to various Radii from 70’-3” down to 3’-11”

ZPA Catering Building

3 Lengths TS 5” x 4” x .375” Wall A500 GR B rolled easy way to various Radii from 40’-7” down to 11’-7”

3 Lengths C9 x 13.4# A36 rolled flanges out to various Radii from 40’-7” down to 11’-7”

3 Lengths TS 6” x 4” x .25” Wall A500 GR B rolled easy way on various Radii from 40’-7” down to 11’-7”

Food Services Building

6 Lengths TS 6” x 4” x .250” Wall A500B rolled easy way to various Radii from 8’-0” down to 4’-10”

6 Lengths C9 x 13.4# A36 Rolled flanges in and flanges out to various Radii from 8’-0” down to 4’-10”

Raintree Restroom

8 Lengths TS 16” x 12” x .500” Wall A500B rolled hard way to 999’-4” Radii

Bridgeport Village, an upscale outdoor mall in Tigard, Oregon recently underwent a $35 million dollar modernization and now features covered seating areas, a central courtyard area with new landscaping, a performance stage, updated building facades and about 20 new storefronts. Albina Co., Inc. was instrumental in helping the developers update the storefronts and bent various materials including:

2 lengths x 40 ft: W10 X 22# A992
Albina to roll all possible from each length (the easy way) to a 40’-4” centerline radius.

4 pcs of 3” X 3” X ¼” ANGLE A36
Albina to roll all possible from each length (leg in) to a 42’-7” outside radius.

3 lengths x 20 ft: 3” X 2” X ¼” ANGLE A36
Albina to roll all possible from each length (3” Leg in) to a 59’-1” outside radius.

3 lengths x 20 ft: 6” X 4” X 5/16” ANGLE A36
Albina to roll all possible from each length (4” Leg in) to a 59’-1” outside radius.

5 lengths x 20 ft: C10 X 20# A36
Albina to roll all possible from each length (flanges out) to radii ranging from 52’-7” – 59’-1”.

3 lengths x 20 ft: 3” X 2” X ¼” ANGLE A36
Albina to roll all possible from each length (2” Leg in) to a 58’-11” outside radius.

2 lengths x 20 ft: 3” X 3” X ¼” ANGLE A36
Albina to roll all possible from each length (Leg out) to a 52’-7” inside radius.

Albina bent 10 lengths of 60-65 foot spans of wide flange W36 X 135# A709-50W the easy way to a radius range of 95 ft – 229 ft, depending on the length and section of the bridge. The Red Electric Bridge, located in Southwest Portland, provides pedestrians and cyclists with a direct, car-free link to the main streets of the area through a forested gulch.