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Zinc Iron Plating as replacement for galvanizing

July 30, 2009

Hi,
I am a design engineer working on the material productivity. Works for retail solutions which includes Cold cases like multideck, Islands, Deli cases..etc. We substantially use galvanized sheet as Corrosion resistance is one of our major criteria and I heard that Zinc Iron Coated sheets can be used as alternative for Galvanized sheet. My questions regarding this are

1. How cost effective Zinc Iron coated sheets when compared to Galvanized..?
2. Approximate hour it withstand the Salt spray test ?
3. Pros and cons of the Zinc iron when compared to other sheets ?
4. How actually these will produced?

Please address above questions.
Thank you

Prashanth Hegde
Product Designer - Bangalore, Karnataka, India

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Hi, Prashanth. If you are speaking of pregalvanized sheet, it can be produced by hot dip galvanizing or by zinc plating (electrogalvanizing). Zinc-iron is an electroplated alloy that costs a bit more than plain zinc, but probably not prohibitively so if you can find a shop that offers it on sheet.

It is slightly more corrosion resistant than plain zinc because the electrochemical voltage is tailored by the alloy to provide protection without itself being more active than necessary. But it will not replace a hot dipped process where the zinc is significantly thicker.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
March , 2010