Pipe Bending for Marine and Shipbuilding
Ship and barge piping packages, bent to fit a hull where nothing is square.
What marine and shipbuilding work brings to a bending shop
Ballast, bilge and fuel piping, engine room runs, cargo and vent piping on barges, and the structural tube inside rails and deck fittings.
A hull has no straight lines and no right angles, so marine piping is bend-heavy by nature. Every run has to follow a frame that curves, and a spool full of elbows both weighs more and takes up room a ship does not have. Ship and barge building is on the list of industries American Pipe Bending works with, and a lot of that work leaves here by water.
Codes and standards: Classification society rules, ABS or equivalent, with ASME B31.3 on process piping and owner specifications over the top. Send your project specification with the enquiry and we will confirm in writing what we certify against before anything is cut.
The river route
The Dawson Road plant is 15 miles from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, the furthest inland international port in the United States. Finished work can go out by barge down the Arkansas River system to the Mississippi and on to the Gulf, which puts the inland shipyards and the Gulf Coast yards both within a single water move.
For a piping package that is not a detail. Moving a full package by road costs more and handles it more, and every handling operation on a finished spool is a chance to damage a bevel.
What to send with a marine and shipbuilding enquiry
Five numbers describe a bend: outside diameter, wall thickness, centerline radius, bend angle and the tangent length on each end. Add the material and the quantity and the job can be priced. A drawing, a sketch or a photograph of a marked-up print all work, and the quote form takes an attachment up to 25 MB.
For marine work, send the classification society rules and the survey requirements with the package drawings. Tell us the destination early: the plant is fifteen miles from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, so a full package can often leave by water, which handles a finished spool far more gently than a road move.
Put the documentation requirements in the enquiry rather than in a later email. Material test reports, non-destructive testing and heat treatment all cost money and time. Retrofitting a documentation package onto a bend that has already been made is slow, and sometimes it is impossible.
Materials we bend
If the grade you need is not listed, ask. This is what comes through most often, not a limit.
What we can bend for you
How we would make it
Wall thickness, radius, material and schedule decide the process. Send the drawing and we will tell you which one fits.
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.
Questions we get from marine and shipbuilding buyers
Do you make piping packages for barges?
Ship and barge building is on the list of industries the shop works with. Send the package drawings and the classification requirements with the enquiry and we will confirm scope.
Can finished work ship by water?
Yes. The plant is less than 15 miles from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, so work can leave by barge on the Arkansas River system to the Mississippi and on to the Gulf.
Can you work to classification society requirements?
Send the rules and the survey requirements with the enquiry and we will confirm in writing what we certify against before anything is cut.
Have a drawing? Send it over.
Send a drawing or a sketch and our team will get back to you with a quote.