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Definition of galvanization

Generically, galvanization means a hot-dip galvanizing, which zinc is coated on steel / iron with applying a electric current.

Since "galvanize" may also mean applying electric current in electrochemistry, can the term be applicable to other metals coated on different substrates?

Patrick Pang
chemist - Hong Kong
February 11, 2008

There is no official body that determines what terms may and may not be used, Patrick. So it's usually a question of what terms ARE used rather than what terms MAY BE used. In this regard, I guess 600 million boxes of nails at Home Depot, Loew's, and my local hardware strore can't all be wrong. The word electrogalvanized is used on those boxes, and probably because inventing that word let them impiy a higher level of corrosion protection (that of galvanizing) than what is actually delivered (that of zinc plating).

I don't see any opportunity for ill-gained wealth in the obfuscation of calling nickel plating or chrome plating 'electrogalvanizing', so I don't think anyone will do it :-)

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
February 12, 2008

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