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Continuous Hot-Dip Galvanizing 2016

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Feature
Continuous Hot-Dip Galvanizing – 2016
By Gary W. Dallin, P.E. International; Zinc Association,
Director, Galvinfo Center
Galvanizing is a process for rustproofing iron and steel by
the application of a zinc coating. Three of the most-used
processes for applying zinc to iron and steel are hot-dip
galvanizing, electrogalvanizing, and zinc spraying. Most
galvanized products are coated using the continuous sheet
hot-dip process. It involves immersing a moving steel
continuous sheet for 2 to 15 seconds in a bath of molten zinc,
which is at a temperature close to 870°F [465°C], to form a
metallurgically bonded zinc or zinc-iron alloy coating. This
same hot-dip immersion process is also used to produce other
coatings such as zinc-aluminum alloys.
Steel rusts (oxidizes/corrodes) when left unprotected in
almost any environment. Applying a thin coating of zinc to
steel is an effective and economical way to protect it from
corrosion. Zinc coatings protect by providing both a physi-
cal barrier and cathodic protection to the underlying steel.
Zinc corrosion rates in air are 10 to 100 times slower than
steel, and galvanized surfaces do not have to be painted if
that is the desired look.
Short History of Galvanizing
Luigi Galvani is galvanizing’s namesake. His experiments
found that frog legs reacted with spasms when touched by
wires of different compositions. Alessandro Volta discovered
this was due to a physical-chemical reaction and later devel-
oped the standard potentials between metals. Sir Humphrey
Davy clarified, that in producing electricity, one metal cor-
roded and the other did not and therefore zinc could protect
iron, even at a distance. Davy’s student Michael Faraday
took it further and developed the laws of electrochemistry
and the concept of anodes and cathodes
In the late 19th century, galvanizing had developed into
an industrial process, but coating shops were a very harsh
place to work. There were fumes from acid cleaning, flux-
ing, and heat from the zinc pots to which steel sheets were
individually hand fed. In the early 20th century continuous
hot and cold rolling mills were in operation, prompting work
to begin on continuous galvanizing. Tadeuse Sendzimir
spent years thinking about how to make galvanizing a faster,
safer and cleaner process. By 1938 his new process was
operational and did not include the messy fluxing step. Hot
10
or cold rolled coils were charged at the front end and an-
nealed galvanized coils were produced at the finishing end.
By 1958 there were at least 56 lines using his design. The
widespread application of many metallurgical, mechanical
and electrical engineering breakthroughs after WWII, in both
the continuous hot-dip and electroplating areas, has led to
the widespread production and large volume use of metal-
lic coatings on sheet steel. Galvanizing of steel sheet has
evolved into a continuous process done very effectively at
high speeds. Today there are over 850 continuous galva-
nizing lines in the world – with over 450 of them in China
alone!
Corrosion Protection of Zinc
A zinc coating will not be undercut by rusting steel
because steel cannot corrode when adjacent to zinc. The
primary mechanism by which a galvanized coating protects
is by providing an impervious barrier that does not allow
moisture to contact the steel. Without moisture (the elec-
trolyte) there is no corrosion. The nature of the galvanizing
process not only ensures that the zinc coating is impervious
to moisture, but adheres well to the steel with excellent abra-
sion and corrosion resistance. In the atmosphere, with its
wet-dry cycles, zinc forms a passive layer of zinc carbonate
that considerably slows its corrosion rate.
The second shielding mechanism is zinc's ability to gal-
vanically protect steel. When steel substrate is exposed, such
as at a cut edge or scratch, it is cathodically protected by the
sacrificial corrosion of the zinc coating adjacent to the steel.
This occurs because zinc is more electronegative (more reac-
tive) than steel in the galvanic series.
The service life of zinc-coated steel is dependent on
the conditions of exposure and on the coating thickness as
shown in Figure 1. Service life is a linear function of time
versus coating thickness. G90 is about 0.8 mils thick on each
surface and will last almost 30 years in a rural environment
before showing red rust. Studies of indoor uses, such as
steel framing, project that a G60 coating will last a minimum
of 300 years and perhaps as long as a millennium.
Galvanized Sheet Production
USA shipments of hot-dip galvanize have grown sig-
nificantly over the past 25 years. This is due largely to the
increased use of the product by the automotive industry. As
the hot-dip process became more capable of making a bet-
ter surface, and very formable products, electrogalvanize
usage for automotive dropped off. The total tonnage of this
product is now less than 1/3 of what it was in the late1990s
(see Figure 2).
For over at least the past decade, automotive is by far
the largest consumer at over 40% of total production. Next
are the steel service centers at about 25%, followed by the
construction market at about 22 %.
Production of Continuously Galvanized Sheet
There are four main steps performed in sequence on
modern hot dip coating lines – cleaning the steel strip,
annealing (softening) the steel, coating it with zinc, then
treating or conditioning the surface. These consecutive pro-
cesses are completed in a matter of 4 to 10 minutes – a feat
that used to take 3 to 6 weeks before the advent of continu-
ous galvanizing lines.
The incoming steel sheet must first be cleaned of rolling
oils, iron fines and dirt in order to ensure zinc adhesion and
good surface quality after coating. This is done either by
chemical cleaning using hot alkali, or gas flame cleaning
just prior to the annealing section.
The furnace has two process requirements; first, to heat
the steel to the required temperature to anneal (transform)
it to the specified strength and ductility, and second, to
provide conditions that remove, and keep from reforming,
iron oxide layer on the surface of the sheet. This is needed
to achieve rapid and complete wetting when the sheet enters
the molten zinc bath. The furnace atmosphere consists of
mostly nitrogen, with from 5 to 35% hydrogen to reduce
iron oxide. To produce commercial galvanized sheet only
takes, at most, 30 seconds at the annealing soak temperature
(about 1300 ˚F).
There are two types of line furnaces in use today. In the
early years, all galvanizing lines used horizontal furnaces,
as they are the easiest and least expensive to build and are
still used today for producing commercial products. Verti-
cal lines were developed to produce high surface quality
sheet and those that demand more intricate heat treatments,
such as the new automotive Advanced High Strength Steel
grades. In vertical furnaces the sheet is under higher ten-
sion and passes over the rolls more smoothly, which aids in
producing superior surface quality.
The “heart” of a galvanizing line is its zinc bath. What
happens here in the 2 to 5 seconds that the steel is in contact
with the liquid zinc is critical to making a useable product.
The zinc pot and its liquid metal content is really a large
“metallic reactor”. Pure zinc at 865˚F alloys extremely fast
with a clean iron surface. It was learned decades ago that
about 0.15% of aluminum dissolved in the zinc slows down
the zinc-iron reaction long enough to prevent the formation
of brittle alloys that would otherwise cause flaking of the
coating when the sheet is formed. This small amount of
aluminum forms a thin, very adherent iron-aluminum-zinc
inhibition layer. It is this layer that makes possible today’s
galvanized sheet market with products that can withstand the
most severe of forming operations without cracking or loss
of the zinc coating.
As the fast moving strip vertically exits the bath, it pulls
liquid zinc up with it by viscous forces. The excess zinc
must be removed. Gas knives are used to do this. They em-
ploy a low-pressure, high-volume method of delivering the
wiping medium, which is almost always air. Pressure is the
principal parameter, but control of other variables drives the
need for extensive equipment to control the wiping opera-
tion.
Air leaving the knife orifices “cut’s “ away the unneeded
liquid zinc, which returns to the zinc bath, leaving only the
thickness required to meet the specification. Galvanizing
lines run at speeds anywhere from 30 to over 500 feet per
minute, and gas wiping is the coating control method used
on all lines. Gas wiping came from the paper industry to the
continuous galvanizing process over 60 years ago to replace
the original zinc coating rolls that were very difficult to con-
trol and incapable of producing thinner zinc coatings. When
the coating is left to freeze after gas wiping, it has a bright,
metallic lustre. As most CGL lines today use lead-free spel-
ter, the spangle size is small (<0.02”) and almost invisible to
the naked eye. Lead in a zinc bath produces large, flowery
spangles. The very small spangle produced by a lead-free
bath freezes smoother and is much easier to make into an
extra smooth product by temper passing. Lead also has other
issues, so most galvanize made today is zero spangle.
Many galvanize lines are capable of making a product
known as “galvanneal”. After the strip leaves the coating
knives, it’s reheated to restart the zinc iron reaction. This
converts the zinc to a zinc-iron alloy. It produces a coating
with a matte appearance, to which paint adheres very well.
The product is widely used to make auto bodies. Galvan-
neal is not painted on coil coating lines as the bulk 10 % iron
in the coating makes it hard and brittle. It would crack and
flake when formed, taking the very well adhered paint with
it.
In the after pot process section, the sheet is temper rolled
and/or leveled. Low carbon steel must be cold worked
slightly after annealing to prevent a problem known as
discontinuous yielding. Temper rolling cold works the steel
in compression and also provides a smooth surface that’s
important for painting. Leveling cold works the steel by
stretching and does not change the surface except for some
fine leveler breaks. It provides superior flatness through
elongation of the strip. After this the sheet can be treated
with chemicals or oiled before it is recoiled.
July / August 2016 11
Feature
Recent Process Improvements
Figure 3 illustrates the importance of not applying more
zinc to the sheet than the minimum specified. Besides the
cost of the steel, zinc is the single largest material cost in
producing galvanized sheet – about 10% of total production
cost. At the same coating weight, this number gets higher
the thinner the sheet. When zinc sells for, say, $1/pound,
a one percent reduction in over-coating results in about
$0.70/ton of additional gross margin. It is very expensive
to use more zinc than necessary in fully complying with
coating weight specifications. A device known as an elec-
tromagnetic stabilizer has been developed to help address
this issue.
Coating weight variability increases with strip vibration
going through the coating knives. Vibration can sometime
be difficult to control. Electromagnetic stabilizers have
been developed that use strong electromagnets to stabilize
the strip so the wiping operation can be more closely con-
trolled. The coating knives can be moved closer to the strip
without danger of touching it. Better control of wiping can
cut the coating weight sigma in half, allowing the average
to be lowered. Less zinc is used while the specification
minimum is protected. This is more important the thinner
the sheet as zinc is a greater part of the sheet weight, e.g.,
0.015” thick G90 coated sheet is 10% zinc, whereas 0.040”
thick G90 is 4% zinc.
A second new technology is the use of electromagnetic
sensing to measure steel mechanical properties. While
this technology is not used as yet to guarantee mechanical
properties, it is very useful in sensing process variations
that can change mechanical properties, allowing a much
shorter reaction time to correct variability that affects steel
properties.
Another recent change has been a revision to ASTM
galvanized sheet specifications to restrict lead content.
The maximum lead level allowed in the zinc used for the
coating is now 90 ppm (considered to be lead-free) per
ASTM A653/A653M. In the early days of galvanizing
zinc-containing ores contained lead, which was carried with
the zinc through its refining process. A lead content of any
more than about 0.05% produces a visible and unsmooth
spangle when zinc freezes on steel. Due to health and
environmental issues with lead, and the need to more eas-
ily produce smooth galvanized sheet, a move to lead-free
coatings started in the early 1990s and has been in place in
North America, Europe and Japan for well over a decade.
A similar restriction for lead is now in place for almost all
of the paints used to produce coil coated galvanized steel
sheet (see A755/A755M).
12
Prepainted Steel Sheet – Roll Forming
Figure 4 is a photo of roll-formed, prepainted panels
with a serious poor appearance issue. This condition is
known as oil canning, trapped pockets, or full center. It can
be caused by poor incoming sheet flatness, poor roll former
operation, faulty panel installation practices, or elastic
buckling of the sheet during roll forming. Elastic buckling
is more prevalent the wider the web portion of the roll
formed sheet and the thinner the steel. There is a method
of eliminating the buckling issue by specific and closely
controlled processing of the steel sheet prior to coil coating.
A brief explanation follows.
First it is necessary to describe a property of low carbon
steel called “discontinuous yielding”. It occurs when
non-cold worked, annealed low carbon steel is stressed in
tension and suddenly yields discontinuously, elongating at
constant load. This phenomenon is related to the presence
and rapid movement of carbon and nitrogen atoms in the
steel. Elongation continues until cold work builds up in
the steel to the point where it is hardened sufficiently that
more stress is again needed to deform it uniformly. The
amount of elongation in the flat area of the stress-strain
curve is known as “yield point elongation” (YPE). It is this
property that causes fluting, stretcher strains and Luders
bands, and is normally suppressed by introducing cold
work into the steel by either leveling or temper passing.
For prepainted galvanized sheet, temper rolling is the best
way to remove discontinuous yielding (zero YPE), as it
produces a smooth surface preferred for coil coating. Yield
point elongation can return, however, after time elapses
(ageing), and this return is accelerated at higher tempera-
tures.
Elastic buckling occurs due to excessive compressive
stresses in the longitudinal direction of the roll formed
panel. These stresses occur when the steel has low or zero
YPE, i.e., no discontinuous yielding. During forming, the
sheet tries to thin in the thickness direction and contract
in the longitudinal direction. However, the non-deformed
 regions next to the bend prevent contraction longitudinally of coil coated HDG & Galfan® in a given exposure site
and place the web area in compression. Pocket waves oc- could be predicted based on zinc metal loss at the site. For
cur when compression stresses exceed the elastic buckling Zn55%Al, no correlation with zinc loss was found
limit of the web area. In both the Prozek, and Lebozek studies it’s important
The question is then “how might the elastic bucking to note that the various pretreatments listed did not include
issue be overcome?” The answer is to produce a sheet with zinc phosphate. Many producers in North America now use
a smaller, controlled amount of YPE (4-6%). This allows zinc phosphate because of its ability, combined with HDG
the deformation to be localized in the bend region, with coatings, to better resist under film corrosion compared
little stress passing into the web region. The paint curing to complex oxide treatments. It would have been very
process accelerates the return of a small amount of YPE interesting to see how zinc phosphate would have compared
(ageing) to accomplish this without producing in these studies.
a fluting condition. The controlled YPE is pro-
duced in the sheet by altering rolling tempera-
tures so as to leave extra carbon and nitrogen to
be available to produce some aging in the paint
ovens. Steel producers who have adopted this
“prepainted sheet practice” in their rolling mills
usually employ it for all prepainted orders, as
the controlled amount of inherent YPE is not
harmful to other non-roll formed uses.

Prepainted Steel Sheet – Field Corrosion

Studies

A study by Prosek, et al, presented at Gal-

vatech ’15 in Toronto was a marine site, 5-year
study on the effect of steel and coating thick-
ness on the edge creep at sheltered cut edges.
It not only proves, but also more importantly
quantifies, the benefit of thicker zinc coatings
(up to 20 microns = G90) on edge corrosion
resistance of galvanized prepainted sheet. A
formula is proposed to calculate the amount of
creep as a function of steel thickness, coating
mass and time. The lesson to be learned from
this study is, that for exposed prepainted prod-
ucts, it is probably unwise to skimp on the coat-
ing weight! The zinc cost (say $1/lb) for G90 is
about $6/1000 ft2. Paint costs for the same area
range from $30 to over $120. It makes eco-
nomic and service life sense to delay under-film
corrosion of expensive paint as long as possible,
by not using zinc coatings thinner than G90,
unless the service environment is benign.
A paper by Lebozec, et al, at the same con-
ference was a study of 18 coil coated materials
using hot-dipped galvanize (HDG) of different
zinc thicknesses, Galfan® and Galvalume®,
with and without chromate and with polyester,
polyurethane and PVDF paints. Several ex-
posure sites around the world; marine, marine/
industrial, tropical marine extreme temperature
and acid rain. The plotted edge creep is rela-
tive to Qingdao, China, (marine/industrial).
Other sites included Bohus/Malmon, Sweden
(high time of wetness & chlorides) and Brest,
France (high time of wetness & chlorides).
This real life study showed the propagation of
edge creep follows a linear trend after 6 years,
with different rates, depending on the expo-
sure site. In general, Zn55%Al showed poorer
resistance to cut edge and scribe corrosion than
HDG but better resistance to blistering. AZ200
showed better resistance to cut edge corrosion
in some European sites (marine). The behavior

July / August 2016 13

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