As anyone who has tried to bend a structural angle has experienced, it is difficult to roll the member perfectly square. Angle bending causes the metal section to twist because the easiest way for it to bend (the weakest section modulus and moment of inertia) is either apex-out or apex-in and not leg-out or leg-in.
Consider what is . . . → Read More: Angle Bending: Angle Iron Behaves Badly When It Is Curved
Curved steel is found in architecture, OEM component parts, fittings for mechanical contractors, and even in art. Part of the overall price of the product is the shipping cost.
There are several tactics to minimize the freight expenses involved:
• Combine shipments of curved steel going to a given region;
• Ship by rail;
. . . → Read More: How Can You Minimize Freight Costs When Shipping Curved Steel?
Steel plate or steel sheets are used in angle bending and bending channels. Only very large quantities (5000 feet) can be economically roll-formed. So most parts are formed on a press brake with a vee-die setup. The inside corner radius is typically 1 to 1.5 times the thickness of the material. This would be the “standard” . . . → Read More: Large-Corner-Radius Forming and Curving Steel
Of course a picture is worth a thousand words, but what happens when you don’t have a picture? Customers call from the field to describe how they want their steel curved. We love everyday references to help us describe the section bending:
–The “belt around your waist” (easyway flat bar) versus the “flat washer” (hardway flat . . . → Read More: When There Are No Pictures to Communicate Specifications for Bending Steel Sections, Use Everyday References
I.e. less ordinary and more exciting. Pedestrian bridges incorporating curved steel often combine aesthetic appeal with functionality beyond providing a route to get from here to there.
When it comes to aesthetics, the design of crisscrossing pipe for Tempe Town Lake pedestrian bridge is open, elegant and clean.
As for . . . → Read More: Curved Steel Makes Pedestrian Bridges Less Pedestrian.
How much lead time is for required for bending steel sections? How long does it take to fabricate curved steel? What is the schedule impact? Architects, engineers, and structural steel fabricators regularly ask these questions of Benders and Rollers, companies that specialize in curving steel.
The answers vary, of course, from company to company depending on its . . . → Read More: Bending Steel Sections: How Long Does It Take?
Perhaps this beam bending question asked by architects, engineers and fabricators is best divided into two parts: What are the longest beams that are produced. And, given those lengths, is there a length limit as to whether they can be curved.
Nucor-Yamato Steel’s cooling bed on NYS-1 mill is about 240′ long, but the steel . . . → Read More: Beam Bending: What Is the Longest Beam That Can Be Curved?
Rolling plates, that are 30 to 45ft long, will produce challenges not only for the steel plate rolling itself but also for shipping the material. Depending on the diameter and the thickness of the material, as the plate passes through the forming rollers it will – if not supported properly—under the force of gravity . . . → Read More: Steel Plate Rolling: Forming and Shipping Long Plate