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Ovality is simply how “out of round” a round material is. The new ovality calculator determines the % of ovality (i.e. the % the material is out of round). All round material has a certain amount of ovality (even as straight material) nothing is PERFECTLY round, mills will produce material to an ovality tolerance. When bending round material, the material will slightly oval. The material theoretic OD, the wall thickness, the radius the material is bent to and the bending method (i.e. how is the material bent) will all impact the final ovality of bent round material. Customers that are using pipe for pressure retaining systems, heat exchangers, industrial applications, boiler tubes, etc. are all concerned about the ovality of round material after bending. The ovality calculator is a great addition to our already vast offering of general bending calculators and spiral math calculators available online. [caption id="attachment_1451" align="aligncenter" width="1101"] bending calculators for steel bending calculations[/caption]

The AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction) recently issued a press release announcing a dozen structural steel projects that have earned recognition in the 2018 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel awards program (IDEAS2). Albina Co., Inc. was the steel bender of choice for the Merit Award winner UC Davis Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Davis, Calif. To read to full press release, please visit the AISC website. The AISC has also produced a YouTube video titled "IDEAS2 Awards FAQ" highlighting the main criteria for steel buildings that are considered as potential candidates to receive an IDEAS2 award.

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.

Albina Co., Inc. bent 40,000 lbs. of various sizes of tube steel for the spiral staircases at the John J. Hemmingson Center at Gonzaga University Spokane, WA. Materials consisted of Tube Steel 16" X 8" X .500" WALL A500 GR B rolled the easy way down to a 22 ft radius. These lengths of material were spiral bent using our induction heating process to AESS standards. We also bent Tube Steel 12" X 6" X .250" WALL A500 GR B rolled the hard way down to a 19 ft radius. The John J. Hemmingson Center was completed in 2015 and serves as a meeting place for students, staff and visitors the University. We visited the campus shortly after it opened and my son will tell you that the highlight for him was the cafe where you can make your own milkshakes! He was sold from then on out and hopes to attend Gonzago University himself one day! [caption id="attachment_1442" align="aligncenter" width="3222"] University of Gonzaga Steel Spiral Staircase[/caption]

Albina recently finished another phase of work for the new Stanford ChEM-H & SNI Building located on the Stanford University Campus. This latest phase consisted of 35,000# of bent HSS (rectangular and square tubing). Tube Steel 12" X 2" X .250" WALL A500 GR B, bent the easy way down to a 15 ft radius (cold) Tube Steel 20" X 12" X .500" WALL A500 GR B, bent the easy way down to a 100 ft radius Tube Steel 14" X 14" X .375" WALL A500 GR B, down to a 15 ft radius (cold) To see artist renderings of the project and to learn more about the building's design please visit GGN's (Gustafson Guthrie Nichol) website. GGN is a landscape architecture firm based in Seattle, Washington.

Need duct component parts? Albina is the largest distributor of angle flanges west of the Rocky Mountains! Over the last few months, Albina has supplied thousands of angle rings in various diameters and out of various material sizes all for the Intel project in Oregon. If you have the need we will have the stock! Give us a call, we will help you connect your ducting. Stocked items (angle rings, plate flanges and cut-offs) can be ordered online for your convenience. These stocked items, as well as our non-stocked items, can also be ordered via phone, email or fax. Albina can drop ship Clamp Together Ducting and Standard Component Parts direct to your location. Albina's inventory helps local contractors save time and expense with standardized component parts. Stocked parts are available for immediate shipment which means you can complete your project on time without costly delays. Non-standard component parts can be ordered or fabricated upon special request.

Building The Spheres was a project that began in February 2013 and just this month The Spheres will officially open. Numerous Pacific Northwest businesses collaborated to make The Spheres possible. The Spheres website is officially live and you can explore not only the building and the many milestones during conception and construction, but also the very unique plant life that inhabits The Spheres. 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! [caption id="attachment_1427" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Curved Steel Spheres[/caption]

We provide both functional and fancy solutions when supplying spiral stringers for spiral, circular and helical staircases to our customers. We specialize in architectural exposure quality spiraling of tube steel, channel, plate and pipe to amazingly tight radii and steep pitches. We work on both commercial and residential applications. We recently spiral bent Tube steel 10" X 6" X .625" WALL A500 GR B the easy way down to a very tight 7 ft inside radius for an office complex in San Francisco, CA. All of the material was bent to AESS (Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel) standards. We are currently working on obtaining some amazing pictures of another project, the spiral staircase that we completed for the University of Gonzaga Student Union. I will post the pictures as soon as we received them so check back!

We can split any size wide flange into "T" and straighten, in our profile roll bending equipment, to mill tolerances. Albina recently split W8 X 24# A992 into 192 pieces of WT4 x 12#. After splitting we rolled stem out to a 35 ft radius. We also bent 96 pieces of 4" X 4" X ¼" ANGLE A36 to the same 35 ft radius (legout). All of the beam splitting and rolling was for a new City Office Building in Northern California. [caption id="attachment_1420" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Steel Wide Flange Split into Tee[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1421" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Custom Fabrication Process of Spltting I-Beam/Wide Flange[/caption]

Albina Co., Inc. recently bent 60,000# of Tube Steel 18" X 6" X .625" WALL A500 GR B for the Young Living Global Headquarters in Lehi, Utah. Young Living Global is a world leader in producing essential oils and broke ground in May 2017 for its 263,000 square-foot, world-class building which was designed to complement Young Living’s philosophy of living harmoniously with nature. They focused on green initiatives in both the indoor and outdoor design. “The care and detail that went into designing our headquarters was a collaborative effort to capture our Founder and Chairman of the Board D. Gary Young’s vision for an architectural representation of the spirit of wellness and abundance that Young Living embodies,” said Jared Turner, Young Living Chief Operating Officer. “I am certain this campus will be one-of-a-kind, inside and out; and we look forward to sharing it with our local community and all who wish to visit.” We bent a total of 53 pieces and all of them were bent the easy way or spiral bent the easy way to as tight as a 43 foot radius. All of the steel material was bent to Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel standards.