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The hot dip galvanizing process
Technical seminar The hot dip galvanizing process
• Loading - jigging
• Degreasing Hot caustic
• Pickling Hydrochloric acid
• Pre-fluxing Zinc am. chloride
• Hot dip galvanizing Molten zinc
• Quenching Dichromate The hot dip galvanizing process
Loading - jigging
The steel items need to be supported during the hot dip galvanizing process.
Can the item be easily jigged?
Will touch marks be a problem?
Solutions and molten zinc must be able to flow into all sections and drain off all sections.
Steel items must be designed to prevent air, solutions and molten
zinc becoming trapped
Check design for possible problems
The hot dip galvanizing process
Degreasing
A hot (90oC) caustic bath is used to remove -
Oil, grease, paint another organic compounds If these contaminating materials are not removed, the next stage of the process (pickling) is affected
Check if any paint is on item - some paints are not easily removed and may require abrasive blasting before galvanizing
Some pipes and pipe fittings have a black varnish coating that cannot be removed in the caustic bath. The hot dip galvanizing process
Acid pickling
The steel items are immersed in hydrochloric acid to remove - rust,
mill scale and other metal oxides
The steel surface must be perfectly clean of these oxides for the molten zinc to react with the steel
Very heavy rust may not be easily removed by pickling - badly rusted items should be abrasive blasted or mechanically cleaned first. The hot dip galvanizing process
Pre-fluxing
Steel items are water rinsed after pickling and immersed in hot (70- 80oC) zinc ammonium chloride (ZAC) solution.
The ZAC solution conditions the clean steel surface ready for hot dip galvanizing.
Good pre-treatment = good quality galvanizing
The hot dip galvanizing process
Quenching
After hot dip galvanized steel item is removed from the galvanizing bath, it is immediately quenched in a sodium dichromate solution
The dichromate quenching cools the item so that it can be quickly
handled and passivates the surface of the galvanized coating to maintain its bright appearance. The hot dip galvanizing process
Hot dip galvanizing
The steel is immersed in molten zinc (temp 4500C)
The clean steel surface reacts with the molten zinc to form a zinc-iron alloy which is very strongly bonded to the surface.
The hot dip galvanized coating forms in 3-5 minutes, depending on the steel thickness.
Free zinc layer
Galvanized coating Alloy layers
Steel Micrograph - 100 X
The hot dip galvanizing process
Quenching After hot dip galvanized steel item is removed from the galvanizing bath, it is immediately quenched in a sodium dichromate solution
The dichromate quenching cools the item so that it can be quickly
handled and conditions the surface of the galvanized coating to maintain its bright appearance.
Dichromate quenching will reduce white rusting problems. White rust
forms when rainwater reacts with newly galvanized steel to form zinc hydroxide.
Poor storage or HDG steel will also promote white rust.
The hot dip galvanizing process
Characteristics
• Typically 65 - 150 microns thick ( 1 mm = 1000 microns)
• Zinc iron alloy layers make up 80% - 100% of the
coating. • The zinc-iron alloy layers are harder than 250 grade steel
Zinc
Zinc-iron alloys
Steel Micrograph of hot dip galvanized coating The hot dip galvanizing process
Coating comparisons Compared to zinc electroplating (ZEP)and continuous galvanizing (CG), hot dip galvanizing (HDG) is better because…..
- HDG is thicker and will last over 50 years or more without
rusting - HDG is harder and is 5 times more abrasion resistant than ZEP and CG - HDG coats all external and internal surfaces and edges. All CG coatings have cut, exposed edges after processing. Coating thickness - microns
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Electroplating
Z350 Gal. sheet
HDG Light
HDG Heavy galvanized products Coating thickness of coatings on The hot dip galvanizing process
