120-year anti-corrosion protection for Cardiff Bay Barrage
Methods
120-year anti-corrosion protection for Cardiff Bay Barrage
Winn & Coales'Densopol wrapping tape is playing a major role in providing long term anti-corrosion protection for the Cardiff Bay Barrage Scheme being constructed for Cardiff Bay Development Corporation. The Densopol tape has been applied to 682 tie-bar and anchor bolt installations, many of which are over 30 metres in length. The main contractor for the project, Balfour Beatty-Costain Joint Venture, says that it is looking for a 120-year life for the barrage system,which includes the tie-bars buried in the sea bed.
The tie-bars were manufactured to Sir Alexander Gibb's specification by Normanby Industries Ltd of Scunthorpe. It was here that Denso primer was applied followed by Densopol tape,with application being carried out by a Winn & Coales' Densoman machine. This has the advantage of creating the correct tension and overlap on the Densopol tape whilst also enabling the work to be carried out much faster than by hand.
Rigorous inspection for freedom from holidays was carried out on each completed tie-bar system.
Designed originally for application by hand or machine to buried or submarine pipelines, Densopol has a thick backing film of PVC with a rubber/bitumen adhesive compound. The extreme toughness of the tape is due to the combination of the PVC backing and a fabric reinforcement contained in the bituminous adhesive layer. The tape is particularly resistant to damage that may be caused by sharp objects, such as in backfill.
Details are available from Winn & Coales (Denso) Ltd, Chapel Road, London SE27 0TR. Tel: 0181 670 7511;Fax: 0181 761 2456.
