Cathelco has signed a contract to supply equipment for the first three vessels in a new generation of warships which will have a major role across the full spectrum of the Royal Navy’s operations.
The Type 26 Frigates will be installed with two types of Cathelco systems, one protecting the underwater hull surface against corrosion and the other designed to prevent blockages in engine seawater cooling system pipework caused by bio-fouling.
Due to start the manufacturing phase in the coming weeks at BAE Systems’ shipyard in Glasgow, the first ship is scheduled to enter service in the 2020s.
A key role of the Type 26 warships will be to protect the new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers from hostile submarines. Cathelco has also supplied hull corrosion protection and marine growth prevention systems for these vessels.
The hulls of the new warships will be protected with Cathelco ICCP hull corrosion protection systems consisting of an arrangement of hull-mounted anodes and reference electrodes connected to a control panel. In operation, the reference electrodes measure the electrical potential at the hull/sea water interface and send a signal to the control panel which automatically adjusts the output to the anodes so that the hull receives the optimum corrosion protection at all times.
Cathelco marine growth prevention systems (MGPS) will protect nine seachests on each vessel against blockages in sea water cooling lines caused by the growth of barnacles and mussels. The seachests will be installed with copper and ferrous anodes wired to a control panel.
The copper anodes produce ions which create an environment where larvae do not settle or breed, whilst the ferrous ions produce an anti-corrosive layer on the internal surfaces of pipes. The concentrations of copper are extremely small – less than two parts per billion –and therefore the system is environmentally benign and does not harm the wider marine environment.
Cathelco and its subsidiary Corrintec Marine have had a long association with Royal Naval frigates having supplied ICCP systems for all the current Type 23 Frigates.