BrandSafway’s MATCOR has recently earned a design patent for its Iron Gopher, which is a linear anode with a braided stainless steel jacket, designed to prevent corrosion through cathodic protection for horizontal directional drilling (HDD) applications during installation.
The Iron Gopher provides approximately 200 per cent more pulling strength than traditional anodes used in HDD applications.
We developed the Iron Gopher with installation costs and timelines at the forefront, focusing on strength to reduce the risks associated with the linear anode breaking during installation, said Ted Huck, one of the Iron Gopher inventors, as well as VP of technical sales for MATCOR.
The Iron Gopher is available in two models:
The standard model is used for cathodic methods such as roads, streams, and property crossings.
The dual-end model is usually used under tank operations or anywhere it is not possible to connect both ends of the linear anode.
[The Iron Gopher] also makes job sites, utilities, and pipelines safer by using cathodic protection to decrease the chance of failure due to corrosion that could cause gas leaks or other potentially catastrophic events, said Huck.
Image courtesy of MATCOR