When the Hammerhead intake filter – which weighs 650kg and is 2.9 metres long and 1.4 metres high – was delivered to Croft Engineering Services’ headquarters in Warrington, both cylindrical ends were full of holes and severely corroded, there were numerous split or corroded welds and it was covered in barnacles.
Before starting the refurbishment, Croft Engineering Services engineers cleaned out the seaweed, sand and silt that had accumulated inside the filter. The Croft engineers then undertook the repairs, fabricating the filter in copper-nickel 90-10 and adding a small stainless steel pipe. The work took around 125 hours.
Deeside Power took the newly-cleaned and repaired Hammerhead intake filter back to the River Dee Estuary to be re-installed by a team of diving engineers.
