At the beginning it was not at all clear that we would be bending pipes for the top pieces of a guardrail at the Hollywood Casino in Toledo, Ohio. When our customer was bidding this job, they wanted us to quote on bending bars into a zig-zag or lightning-bolt shape.
The weight of the specified 1” x 2-1/4” flat bar, however, was 153 lbs per piece, a big drawback because it was too heavy. The customer then changed the design to 1-1/2” Schedule 40 pipe and then again to 1-1/4” Schedule 40 pipe which has a total weight per piece of only 35 lbs.
The customer had originally asked for 870’ of this material or 58 pieces with 11 bends. We ended up doing 58 pieces with 16 bends equaling 928 bends total.
The radius of the bend, which was done on a rotary draw bending machine with an internal mandrel, is 2.5” inside radius. I was unsure if we could do this and how the bends would look. I decided to try some sample pieces before quoting the job.
The first pieces were not perfectly level, but the bending machine was quickly modified and that problem was solved. By our early involvement with our customer, we were able to develop the optimal solution for the design and fabrication of these guardrails which look a little like lightning bolts—a little lighter lightning bolts than originally planned.
