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Albina Co., Inc. recently spiral bent a piece of tube steel 10" X 6" X .375" WALL A500 GR B. This is a very tight spiral bend with a lot of twist….almost NO distortion. With the assistance of an induction heat source, Albina was able to spiral bend the tube steel the Easy way to a 65” center line plan view radius. [caption id="attachment_667" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Tight Spiral Stringer with almost NO Distortion.[/caption]

St. Alphonsus Medical Center is non-for-profit hospital, serving Boise, and the surrounding communities in eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho. Albina Co., Inc. recently bent several long lengths of tube steel to form a beautiful curved entry-way at the Joint Preservation & Reconstruction Center. [caption id="attachment_663" align="aligncenter" width="300"] St. Alphonsus Medical Center Curved Canopy[/caption] [caption id="attachment_664" align="aligncenter" width="300"] St. Alphonsus Medical Center Curved Canopy[/caption]

Architecturally designed pedestrian bridges and walk-ways are often erected at transportation stations, universities, museums, business centers, and state parks. Most often, these curved steel bridges are constructed of bent or rolled structural steel including, pipe, square or rectangular tube steel, channel and wide flange. It depends on the application, the load requirements the AESS (Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel) requirements, and fabrication specifications of the project to determine which type of structural steel will best fit the needs of the project. [caption id="attachment_655" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Dry Creek Pedestrian Bridge [/caption] [caption id="attachment_659" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Ironwood Pedestrian Bridge[/caption] [caption id="attachment_658" align="aligncenter" width="300"] HWY 36 Pedestrian Bridge[/caption] [caption id="attachment_657" align="aligncenter" width="300"] May Creek Pedestrian Bridge[/caption] [caption id="attachment_656" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Museum of Flight Pedestrian Bridge[/caption]

When people ask me what I do and where I work, I get excited to tell them the answer because it almost comes as a surprise when I describe what our company does. When I say, " I work for a steel bending and fabrication company" many people look at me inquisitively and ask "so what does that mean?" Since many of the products we make require someone to look above eye level, my common response is "next time you are outside, look up, look around, any time you see bent steel on a canopy, a roof truss, a store front...those are the kinds of things we make." Many people go as far as to comment, "I never really thought about the fact that the steel has to be bent somehow!" So next time you look up and see a curved steel structure, think of Albina. "We've Got You Covered!"

The bending portion of this project required very large HSS rectangular tubing to be bent consistently from piece to piece with little to no deformation. Albina bent 8 lengths of TS 20” x 12” x .500” wall A500 Gr. B, all over 70 ft long. Albina also bent 44 lengths x 60 ft and 23 lengths x 25 ft of TS 6” x 3” x .313” wall A500 Gr. B, this material was “double bent” the easy-way and the hard-way. Fought & Co., a structural steel fabrication shop located in Tigard Oregon, teamed up with Albina to successfully produce the required canopy. Albina was tasked with the steel bending while Fought was tasked with the fabrication. Albina recently published an article in Metal Architectural (click here to read) highlighting the Student Experience Center Curved Steel Canopy project.

The last few years of market growth have allowed Albina to increase our capabilities, our staff and to acquire some innovative new equipment and implement new processes on that equipment. We are proud to announce the newest bending technology at Albina, which is induction heating. Albina has used heat to bend materials for decades, utilizing alternatives to the actual process of induction heating. We have built upon our vast knowledge base for hot increment bending and are now applying an induction heat source to our recently upgraded increment bending process. This is a very exciting step for Albina and for our loyal customers across the United States and Canada. Our new heating source and bending process will help expand the material range we can work with, radii that we can bend and it will allow us meet the “induction only” heating requirements that certain projects specify. We are confident that our new induction heat source and increment bending process will allow Albina to better service our customer’s needs. Albina’s experienced, friendly, qualified staff has the ability to meet all of our customers bending, rolling and fabrication needs.

Albina produced the elevator garage doors, the door frames, the upper/lower sills and several other parts for the safe operation of the door system for the Porsche Design Tower in Sunny Isles, Florida. Shaped like a piston driven into sand, the concrete-and-glass Porsche Design Tower will contain three car elevators. Each can whisk a convertible up 60 stories and then slide it into the owner's personal steel-reinforced garage. This project required a high level of quality and accuracy to the fabricated parts due to the application and the high visibility of the door itself. The doors are in the condominium and are very visible. This project had its hurdles to overcome but working together with our customer, we were able to resolve the issues and provide quality parts. The materials on the project ranged from 14ga sheet steel to ½” thick plate components and a TS 3” x 2” x .120” wall rolled tube frame. Several parts required bending, the tube steel, the ½” plate for lower sill, the 3/8” plate for the roller braces and some ¼” plate for the upper sill. The accuracy of bending was critical because all of these parts work together to make the door, the upper and lower sill and the sides of the door frame. When rolling we maintained a 1/16” +/- tolerance measured at the mid-ordinate (MO) over a 9ft chord.

Albina Co., Inc. recently provided the curved steel beams for an 8,000 square foot glass canopy at the Oregon State University (OSU) Student Experience Center, installed in Corvallis Oregon. The canopy links the new Student Experience Center with the Memorial Union. The canopy is not only functional (allowing for a protected space when it is raining during outdoor events) but also a signature structure on the Oregon State University campus. The bending portion of this project required very large HSS rectangular tubing to be bent consistently from piece to piece with little to no deformation. Albina bent 8 lengths of TS 20” x 12” x .500” wall A500 Gr. B, all over 70 ft long. Albina also bent 44 lengths x 60 ft and 23 lengths x 25 ft of TS 6” x 3” x .313” wall A500 Gr. B, this material was “double bent” the easy-way and the hard-way. Fought & Co., a structural steel fabrication shop located in Tigard Oregon, teamed up with Albina to successfully produce the required canopy.

Albina Co., Inc. is a small, family owned, 3rd generation company that can handle LARGE and SMALL projects requiring bent steel. While we do have a large national presence in the structural steel and architectural market of bent steel, we also love to work on smaller, local and regional projects that might only require a few simple bends. We have mastered the craft of steel bending and can be price competitive on smaller projects as well. Keep in mind that our company was built on providing bent steel products for the manufacturing and industrial sectors and that mainstay of our business has not changed. We can provide the consistent, accurate, repeatable small parts you require for your bent steel project.

Albina recently completed several curved steel pieces including a custom martini glass, a palm tree and a curved steel marquis for one of the entrances to the Fremont Street Experience in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fremont Street Experience is a five-block entertainment district in historic downtown Las Vegas that is home to Vista Vision, the worlds largest video screen, the SlotZilla zipline, some of the cities most iconic casinos, and over 60 restaurants and retail stores.