The art of bending structural steel and pipe

Designers and builders of structures featuring sinuously shaped steel often earn accolades. But who credits the companies who perform the exacting task of flawlessly bending structural steel and pipe to architectural perfection?

Kubes Steel, with offices in Stoney Creek, Ont., is the largest bender of structural steel and pipe in the country. Steelworker Joe Kubes founded the company as a backyard shop in 1974.

“There was a market niche for new home construction in fabricating wrought iron railings for staircases and balconies,” says John Rogers, manager of business development with Kubes Steel. “Joe worked at the steel mill by day and made railings by night.”

Kubes soon quit his day job and gradually moved to miscellaneous metal fabricating. He began to invest in precision equipment to take on contracts for Stelco and Dofasco, working on such projects as ladle and burner repairs. In 1999, the company moved into a new facility and became ISO-certified.

“At that point, the company moved into steel bending as a niche market that doesn’t involve competing against as many bidders on every job,” says Rogers. Today, the company employs 80 people in a 100,000-square-foot facility. Its capabilities include bending steel beams up to 44-inches in depth. The facility can also roll pipe up to 20 inches in diameter and incrementally bend pipe up to 42 inches in diameter.

The work is primarily achieved using pyramid rolls, three rollers set in the shape of a triangle around which steel is bent. The steel is always rolled cold.

“If we had to heat it up, it would be because we were doing something wrong,” says Rogers.

Some of the company’s more prominent projects include work on the frieze that lines the roof of the new Yankee Stadium, which replicates an architectural feature of the original stadium. The work was completed for Quebec’s Canam Group.

The company also bent the 26- and 30-inch diameter pipe used in the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg for Walters Inc. of Hamilton.

Rogers notes that the projects taken on by the company are usually part of a precise schedule determined by construction staging and the realities of international commerce.

“Most often the customer supplies the material,” he says. “When we were working on the steel for the Skipping Stone Bridge that spans the Bow River in Calgary, 16-inch pipes with one-inch walls were shipped as a special order from China to Houston by boat and delivered here by truck. We spliced and rolled the pipe here and after ultrasonic testing, we then delivered the order to ADF Group in Terrebonne, Que. They further fabricated it and shipped the order to Calgary.”

Some of the steel-bending contracts are functional, rather than esthetic. For example, much of the steel used to support concrete floor slabs is cambered before delivery, but appears as a straight beam once the floor load has been applied.

“Structural rolling and bending of steel is considered a black art,” says Rogers.

“For most jobs, you’re working with equipment powerful enough to crush the steel and rip the flanges off it if you didn’t finesse it to get the right shape. Most companies who perform this service are secretive and it’s rare that a structural bending house lets anyone see how they do it.”

However, Kubes Steel has been more open about its techniques, offering tours to groups such as the Canadian Welding Association and posting instructional videos to YouTube.

The company is also active in the professional side of the industry. It’s a member of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction and Joe Kubes is currently chairman of the Steel Plus Network. Kubes Steel is also a member of the American Institute of Steel Construction, and was a founding member of its roller bender committee.