Wire galvanising wiping pad material

Q. Hello,

I am an engineer and my company is implementing continuous wire galvanising process. We have fully designed and manufactured the whole galvanising line. Everything works fine except for the wipes.
The wire exits the zinc bath at 45 degrees angle and immediately passes through two wiping pads, which are 50 mm long and 25 mm wide. Right after wiping, the wire enters the quench tube were cold water circulates and cools the wire. As a wiping material I am using Palmetto Brite wire wipes.
The wire is clamped in between the pads with a clamping screw and the finish is good but after running for 2-3 minutes the coating gets thicker and rougher. The problem can be solved by applying a bit more force to the pads. The finish is smooth again for 2-3 minutes and then the same problem comes up. The same procedure is repeated until the physical limit of clamping is reached and wiping pad needs to be replaced.

Is there anything I might be doing wrong, or alternatively should be doing. Maybe I should try different wiping materials? What materials are you using for wiping galvanised wire.

More details:
Wire travelling speed 40 m/min
zinc tank length 2 m
zinc temperature 520 degrees C.

Any ideas would be highly appreciated.

Peteris

Q. We have a continuous galvanizing line for steel wires here in Kampala. We are using Palmetto Brite Wipes pads. Yes, they work well but padding is not automatic and is done by operators; the coating weight varies with operators and is sometimes less than what is required! My question is: Is there any cheaper alternative to pad wipping apart from nitrogen wipping or if there any way we can make pad wiping automatic (as in set it so as to achieve the coating we want automatically)?