Galvanizing growth

Citation

(2000), "Galvanizing growth", Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials, Vol. 47 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/acmm.2000.12847aab.006

Galvanizing growth

Keywords Humber Galvanizing, Galvanizing, Contracts, Mild steel, Flanges

Humber Galvanizing Ltd informs us that it is celebrating its third "birthday" with the signing of a major contract for treating scores of machine parts.

The work has helped contribute to an on-going buoyant order book, with output continuing to grow year on year. The business was founded and opened its 20,000sq.ft premises at the Citadel Trading Estate, Hull, in spring 1996.

This latest multi-thousand-pound order, won against strong competition, is for hot-dip galvanizing 70 tonnes of special flanges that will form key parts of OCIMF hose fittings used in the petrochemical industry. Humber Galvanizing is treating the flanges over a six-month period.

Individually, the mild steel flanges weigh from 45 to 66 kilos each. Put together, they would be as heavy as the equivalent of eight fully loaded double-decker buses! They are from 12in. to 24in. in diameter and are of varying thickness. A special feature is that they are all made to such a high tolerance that any surface marks would mean that the flanges would have to be machined again. Therefore, each item has to be handled, stacked and packaged using special techniques.

At the plant, metal is dipped in a bath measuring 52 metres long x 2.8 metres deep x 1.2 metres wide and containing molten zinc heated to a temperature of 450°C. This creates a metallurgically bonded coating rather than a mechanical bond, so that the coating becomes an integral part of the component, giving the material a long maintenance-free life-span.