This week: As a modern, internationally active company, for fifty years RADOLID Thiel GmbH is specialized in manufacturing screw protection caps by injection molding.

The environment of offshore wind energy plants is extremely corrosive so that damaged parts due to corrosion can cause high maintenance costs. Therefore a stable corrosion protection is indispensable. The high ocean salinity creates ideal conditions for electrochemical corrosion reactions between sea water and the metal parts of the wind energy plant. Thereby the salt increases the electrical conductivity of water. In the following the corrosion reaction proceeds faster. Ultraviolet radiation, waves and wind additionally stress the parts.

To protect offshore wind energy plants from corrosion damage, epoxy resin and polyurethane coatings are used by default. Whereas the associated metal connection items like screws and nuts have metal coatings which are immediately brought up after the production process. These coatings are often damaged due to handling while transport and assembly so that a comprehensive corrosion protection is no longer efficiently possible. The aggressive salt water attacks the unprotected part. Electrochemical corrosion reactions proceeding results in anodic attack on the metal and malfunction of the part.

At this point RADOLID screw protection caps are an affordable and efficient solution. We provide a purpose-built “two-component screw cap” for the extreme offshore plant manufacturing requirements. Its corpus combines the properties of two materials. The skin polymer is a soft and flexible plastic so that the cap optimally adjusts the finish roughness of the locating surface and obtains a good tightness. The cap also has a pure and non-slip surface which ensures an easy assembly. The core polymer is a hard and resistant plastic which provides the cap with the required rigidity and ensures a tight grip on the threaded bolt. During assembly the threaded bolt cuts into the inner ridges of the cap. By using plastics instead of metal materials our products have a low weight and the risk of contact corrosion between part and corrosion protection item will be avoided.