Sacrificial Anodes

Sacrificial Anodes

In order to avoid sustaining damages to the installations it is imperative that we apply cathodic protection, which is achieved by placing a mass of active metal in the same environment where corrosion takes place. The primary and most cost effective active metals are zinc, aluminum and magnesium.
One of the most widespread methods involves the immersion in liquid or the insertion in soil of a sacrificial anode, through which certain active metals are placed in the same environment of an electrolytic cell where the phenomenon of electrolysis occurs.
These metallic items made of active metals are called anodes.

The anodes are sacrificed releasing their mass in the form of ions which are transferred towards the less active metallic mass, i.e. the various installations or constructions.
This is the reason why this particular method is called cathodic protection through a sacrificial anode.
Its applications include the shipping industry and in general plumbing installations with pipelines containing water.