THE GALVANIZING PROCESS
Galvanized steel is all around us and plays a vital role in our everyday lives. It is used in construction, transport, agriculture, power transmission and everywhere that good corrosion protection and long life are essential. It, for instance, helps light our roads (lighting columns) and provide power for our homes, hospitals and offices (high voltage pylons).
There are many other important industries that make use of galvanizing. It is a very versatile process and articles ranging in size from nuts and bolts to gates and large structural sections can be protected.
The galvanizing process involves chemically cleaning your gate and then immersing it into a tank of molten zinc. The zinc is at a temperature of 450°C and your gate is in the tank for only a few minutes.The process creates a unique coating that is metallurgically bonded to your steel. Hot Dip Galvanizing will provide a coating that gives very long life and that is tough and resilient when compared to other protective systems.
THE BENEFITS OF GALVANIZING
Galvanizing is unique – tough, long lasting, self-healing and covers internal and external surfaces.
Galvanizing protects steel in many ways:
1. The zinc weathers at a very slow rate giving a long and predictable life.
2. The coating corrodes preferentially to provide sacrificial protection to small areas of steel exposed through drilling, cutting or accidental damage.
3. If the damaged area is larger, sacrificial protection prevents sideways creep which can undermine coatings.
4. Galvanizing is unique, the process produces a coating which is bonded metallurgically to the steel.
5. All parts of the surface of the steelwork are coated – external, internal, awkward corners and areas with narrow gaps.
6. Specified to a single standard: EN ISO 1461.