Custom Pipe Fabrication
Cutting, end preparation and fabrication around the bend, so one purchase order covers the package.
A bending shop that finishes the part
American Pipe Bending describes itself as a complete fabrication company, and the practical meaning of that is a part can leave here finished rather than leave here bent.
Saws cut up to 24″ I.P.S.. End preparation is done here. In-plant stress relieving means a part needing heat treatment does not go out and come back. Non-destructive testing to your specification happens before it ships, not at the other end.
Each of those steps removed from a schedule is a handling operation, a transport leg and a handoff between two companies who each think the other checked something. On a job with a delivery date that pressure is where most of the risk sits.
Request a quoteWhat can go on one purchase order
Bending and coiling across the full range, from 1/2″ O.D. 16 gauge to 42″ O.D. Cutting to length. End preparation to the bevel your welding procedure calls for. Heat treatment and stress relieving in house. Non-destructive testing and the documentation package that goes with it.
That matters most on a package that crosses process boundaries. A run containing 2 inch cold bends, 24 inch induction bends and a helical coil would otherwise need three vendors. Here it is one drawing set, one schedule and one set of certificates.
Working from your drawings
Send drawings, sketches or a marked-up print. PDF, DWG and DXF all work, and the quote form takes an attachment up to 25 MB. Where a drawing calls out a bend that cannot be made as dimensioned, we would rather tell you at quote stage than at first article.
Where you have an isometric rather than a bend schedule, send that. Working back from the iso to the five numbers each bend needs is something we do regularly, and it usually catches at least one dimension that does not close.
What to send, and what it costs to leave out
Five numbers describe a bend: outside diameter, wall thickness, centerline radius, bend angle and the tangent length on each end. Add the material, the quantity and the code and the job can be priced. The quote form takes a drawing up to 25 MB in PDF, DWG, DXF, JPG or PNG, and a photograph of a marked-up print is fine.
The things most often left out are the ones that change the price most. Documentation is the first: material test reports, non-destructive testing and heat treatment all have to be priced and scheduled from the start, and retrofitting a package onto a finished bend is slow and sometimes impossible. The delivery date is the second, because it decides whether the job is possible rather than what it costs.
The third is the acceptance criteria. Wall thinning on the outside of the arc and ovality through it are the two numbers a reviewer checks first. Tell us the limits and we will confirm the tightest radius that holds them before anything is cut. Finding the boundary at quote stage costs nothing; finding it at first article costs a length of pipe and a week.
Where a drawing calls out a bend that cannot be made as dimensioned, you will hear about it at quote stage rather than at delivery. That happens more often than it should, usually because an isometric was drawn without a bend schedule and the radius was never checked against the wall. Working back from an isometric to the five numbers each bend needs is routine here, and it normally catches at least one dimension that does not close.
Testing we can provide
Per your bending specification, not ours. Tell us the code and the acceptance criteria and we will say what runs here and what is subcontracted.
Other ways we bend
Wall thickness, radius, material and schedule decide the method. If you are not sure which fits, send the drawing and we will tell you.
Heat Induction Bending
Cojafex induction bending up through 42″ O.D. and 4″ wall, in any radius, angle or plane.
Coiling
Helical, spiral wound and serpentine coils, cold, up through 10″ pipe.
Cold Bending
Rotary draw bending on fourteen machines, with mandrels and wiper shoes where the radius needs them.
Mandrel Bending
Ball mandrels and wiper shoes for tight radii and thin walls that would otherwise collapse.
Large Diameter Pipe Bending
The work most shops turn away: up to 42 inch outside diameter and 4 inch wall.
Stainless and Alloy Bending
Stainless, duplex, Hastelloy, titanium and nickel alloys, bent without wrecking the metallurgy.
Have a drawing? Send it over.
Send a drawing or a sketch and our team will get back to you with a quote.