Railings & Brackets
  Roll Formed Railings are made
up of Open Seam: Square, Round,
Rectangular and Special Shaped
Tubing, Flanged Seam Tubing.
Framing, C-Channels, Box Channels,
and Strut-Channels also make
good Railings. Railings can
also be plain U-Channels with
Legs equal to, and taller than
the dimension of the Web. Legs
shorter than the web dimension
can be used, however the shorter
the legs get, the weaker the
Railings become. Even Angles can be used as Railings. Open
Seam Rectangular Tubing, Strut
Channels, and Framing, with
the opening on the short side,
can offer a lot of extra strength
and are common Railing styles.
This is due to extra work hardening
and formed surfaces. Round Open
Seam and Flanged Seam Tubing
are also common styles and perhaps
the most economical. This is
because Round, Semi-Round, Hex
and other Special Shaped Tubing
offer the best opportunity for
forming with a Prefinish such
as a Prepolished finish (that
can be Prelaquered if necessary)
with a Strippable-PVC covering,
and many other Prefinishes.
Other Unusually Shaped Open
Seam Tubing can be designed
and produced to match unusual
architectural, insert, or bracket
needs. Railings should not be
confused with Rails, as Railings
are specifically used for safety
barriers and grab bars for stairs,
walkways, mezzanines, lofts,
guards, crowd movement and traffic
control, hallways and other
barrier uses. They can help
protect, support and guide people
or protect fixed objects and
structures from moving things.
Rails are used for much more
than this. Railings, by necessity,
are required to be strong, so
thicker materials are used up
to .125" thick and rarely below
.048" thick. Roll Formed Railings
offer advantages over other
Railing styles through inline
fabricating of: Holes, Slots,
Notching, Perforating, Embossing,
Shear Forms, Tabs, Cutouts,
K/O's, End Fabricating and Cut-to-Length.
Radius bends can also be done
inline if the radius is large
enough and the ends are not
straight. Prefinished Materials
are difficult to use on thicker
materials. The thinner a Railing
can be, the easier it is to
use an inexpensive Prefinish.
Some companies will use a Prefinished
thinner wall Cladding to slide
over the stronger Railing beneath,
which can be made from a less
expensive, thicker base metal,
that is unfinished. Prefinishes
used on thinner Railings, and
Cladding to go over Railings,
are: Prepolished, Preplated,
Prelaquered, Strippable-PVC
coating, Preanodized, Prelaminated
Vinyl and Prepainted. It is
rare that an .060" thickness
can have these Prefinishes on
simpler round Railings. Thicker
than .060" is close to impossible.
For thicker parts that cannot
have these prefinishes, Post
Finishing at extra expense,
can be supplied, but Prefinished
Cladding can be much less expensive.
Thicker Railings up to .125"
thickness can be produced with
some Prefinishes that are not
as decorative, but are less
expensive, such as: Galvanized-(G30,
G60, G90, G210, Electro, Bonderized,
and Smooth-Brite), Aluminized,
Galvanneal, Galvalume but the
closer to .125" thickness, the
more surface imperfections can
appear during forming. These
less expensive, and less decorative,
Prefinishes can be a good economical
choice for thinner Railings
as well. Materials used for
Roll Formed Railings are: Steel,
Stainless, Brass, Bronze, Alloys,
Copper, High Strength, Clad
and Aluminum. Lengths can be
as short 12" or as long as 40
feet. U-Channel & Angle Railings
generally have Existing Tooling.
There are many sizes of Open
Seam Tubing that are also already
tooled. Tooling on other shapes
can be donated on high volume
blanket orders but new die costs
are often required. Some Existing
Tooling is shown on our print
examples link, and Tube size
range chart. These are by no
means a complete list of Railings
we can produce.
Roll Formed Brackets: are generally
not made for our railings but
for uses in all industries as
metal: Supports, Hangers, Reinforcements,
Tracks, Slides, Connectors,
Tube Joint Splicing and Bushings,
and many other uses. Sections
that are used as brackets are:
Channels, Slats, Battens, Open
Seam, Flanged Seam, Finned Seam
& Lock Seam Tubing, Framing,
Angles, Profiles, Special Shapes,
Rails, Tracks, Slides, Zees,
Louvers, Panels and others.
Many Sections are the same as
those used as Railings. Some
customers also prefer to call
certain Clamp Ring styles as
Brackets. Please see our Rings
& Clamps Section if that is
your interest. Inline Fabricating
is very common on Brackets,
especially End Fabricating,
Holes, Slots, Etc. Inline fabricating,
Metals used, Thickness and Length
capability, and Prefinishes
used are the same as with Railings
above. Tooling is Existing for
many sections such as Channels,
Angles, Open Seam and Lock Seam
Tubing, and many other shapes.
Other shapes can have new tooling
designed and built for them.
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