Ive fabricated many steel racks and pole mounts. Some fabbed in my shop and others simply welded together on site. If they know what they are getting into and are aware of the risks involved, id say go for it. Show them pictures of good designs and maybe they can try to duplicate something similar.
As far as galvanic reactions, i have used thick nylon washers under aluminum L-feet and rail to mount to steel beams and tube. I use a stainless bolt to bolt it down to the steel as to have the stainless in contact with the aluminum and steel via the nylon washer so those two metals are never in contact. Use a nylon washer (or similar) small enough diameter to be hidden under the L-foot so UV (sun light) will never contact it. There are probably other good solutions as well. Roy Rakobitsch NABCEP Certified Small Wind Installer® NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer® Certified Advanced Tower Climbing, Safety & Rescue Wind/PV Design Engineer Windsine LLC 631-514-4166 www.windsine.org On May 28, 2015 9:21 PM, "RM You" <solarea...@solareagle.com> wrote: > Hi Wrenches, I have had a couple of customers want to fabricate their own > PV pole mounts and racks out of iron. Aside from the galvanic corrosion and > weight issues is there anything else I should caution these guys about? Any > stories about failures etc? My druthers are to stay with the engineered > aluminum pole mounts but when you’re dealing with someone with fabrication > experience and the cost for pre-fab is high then the obvious outcome > occurs. If the unit is properly treated/painted I imagine it could last > many years. Is there a way to attach an anode to such a rack or would > simple non conductive insulation between panels and rack be the best answer? > > Ron Young > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > >
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