Improvement of Hot Dip Galvanizing Process by Additive to Flux Solution

Many surface protection methods have been developed to apply to constructional steels which have been used under severe corrosive environments. One of these methods, hot dip galvanizing is being widely used to the numerous constructional steels such as a guard rail of high way, various types of structural steel for manufacturing ship and for some other industrial fields etc.. Recently, the cost of zinc is getting higher and higher, thus, it is considered that improvement of hot dip galvanizing process to reduce the cost of production should be developed possibly. In this study, additives such as acid cleaning solution, $NH_4OH$, $Al(OH)_3$ and $H_2O_2$ were added to flux solution, and omission of water washing treatment after acid cleaning was investigated with some types of flux solutions added with some additives mentioned above. The decrement of pH by adding the acid cleaning solution could be controlled due to neutralization reaction with addition of $NH_4OH$. The flux solution added with both $NH_4OH$ and $Al(OH)_3$ exhibited nearly the same color and pH value as those of orignal flux solution with no added, and the sample dipped to the flux solution which was added with additives mentioned above indicated a relatively good corrosion resistance compared to other samples. However, the flux solution added with $NH_4OH$, $Al(OH)_3$ and $H_2O_2$ exhibited a different color, sediment and a bad corrosion resistance. Consequently, it is considered that omission of water washing treatment may be able to perform by adding optimum additives to the original flux solution.