Cortec Corp., a St. Paul, Minn.-based company that develops corrosion-control products, has debuted its VpCI and MCI technologies for use in the wind power market.
Equipment corrosion prompted by UV rays, extreme temperatures and salt can be a major issue for wind farms, making corrosion-protection systems a crucial element of operations and maintenance programs, the company says. Excessive component failures can lead to high maintenance costs and underperformance of overall energy output.
For instance, Cortec recently worked on a project at a wind farm in Brazil, where the base bolts were corroding due to constant exposure to the extremely corrosive environment of strong winds and blowing sand near the ocean. Clamps inside individual transformer boxes next to the tower bases were also experiencing corrosion.
To protect against future corrosion, the base bolts were cleaned with Cortec’s VpCI-418 and coated with VpCI-368 prior to capping them off with a rubber gasket. Any severe rust on the base bolts or base flange faces was passivated with CorrVerter Rust Converter Primer. The flange faces were also top-coated with VpCI-396 and VpCI-384, and corroded clamps inside the transformer box were unbolted and cleaned with VpC®-415 and dried. ElectriCorr VpCI-239 was applied before they were bolted back into place.
Cortec says the use of VpCI products can also help with the maintenance of turbine cooling systems, where accessibility is a challenge. The cleaning and filling of these systems and the recovery of aged coolants are difficult: In turn, VpCI-649 BD additive is used in small doses to address these issues and enable long-term corrosion protection.
For more information on corrosion prevention and Cortec’s products, click here.
