Hi Steve & Gautam,
I've made some measurements of the spare (damaged) 40m bellows. Unfortunately neither of our coordinate measurement arms are currently set up (and I couldn't find an appropriate micrometer or caliper), so I could not (yet) directly measure the thickness. However from the other dimensional measurements, and a measurement of the axial stiffness (100 lb/in), and calculations (from the Standards of the Expansion Joint Manufacturers Association (EJMA), 6th ed., 1993) I infer a thickness of 0.010 inch in . This is close to a value of 0.012 in used by MDC Vacuum for bellows of about this size.
I calculate that the maximum allowable torsional rotation is 1.3 mrad. This corresponds to a differential height, across the 32 in span between support points, of 0.041 in.
In addition using the EJMA formulas I find that one can laterally displace the bellows by 0.50 inch (assuming a simultaneous axial displacement of 0.25 inch, but no torsion), but no more than ~200 times. I might be good to stay well below this limit, say no more than ~0.25 inch (6 mm).
If interested I've uploaded my calculations as a file associated with the bellows drawing at D990577-A/v1.
BTW in some notes that I was given (by either Larry Jones or Alan Weinstein) related to the 40m Stacis units, I see a sketch from Steve dated 3/2000 faxed to TMC which indicates 1200 lbs on each of two Stacis units and 2400 on the third Stacis.