Month: August 2011


Bending aluminum shapes into rings can be challenging.  Fabricators know that aluminum work-hardens and often cracks during the forming process.  Nevertheless, the benefits of using the light-weight material with its strong strength-to-weight ratio appeal to design engineers including those designing Read more…


Can’t bend a tube?  Bend two channels—one flanges in, one flanges out—and then weld them together to create a curved tube.  No channels in the desired size?  Form two steel plates into channels, bend them and then weld them together.  Read more…


Engineers have often observed that tube bending can change the mechanical properties of a hollow structural section (HSS).  Typically the yield and tensile strength increases as a result of tube bending, but there may be a loss of ductility, however Read more…


I have frequently lectured and written about structural steel bending for architects, engineers and structural steel fabricators as well as for undergraduate and graduate school engineering students. In the dialogue that followed the presentations, I have been asked a number Read more…


First of all, the footwork.  A narrow, tight-radius spiral staircase (the kind that comes in a kit form) challenges you to step carefully on each tread but might allow you the use of handrails on each side of the steps.  Read more…


Most nuclear and other power plants must be engineered to safely shut down in the event of seismic activity or other natural or man-made disruptions. Others, however, must become operational within seconds after such a disruption.  A case in point Read more…


As a young man, now internationally famous architect, Frank Gehry, was walking down the street in Chicago and came upon the Inland Steel Building designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM).  He thought, now that is a well designed building.  Read more…


In an example of adaptive reuse, a studio complex called Cinespace is under construction at the old Ryerson Steel site in Chicago. (Please see photo below.)  For over one hundred years, Chicago Metal Rolled Products has been—and continues to be–both Read more…


When I was young I could buy a straw filled with bubble gum.  Unlike an empty straw, I could bend the straw with gum without kinking the straw.  The gum was working basically the same way a mandrel works. Most Read more…

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